It's not the Linux kernel that's being closed, but likely their own contributions, which most likely aren't all GPL.

Right? Like it or not, we live in a society dominated by money. A very small number of Linux distributions have found a way to sustainably produce an excellent product. That's a good thing. The alternatives are either burnout or insecurity.

lol burn

Just like the stigma of tattoos. And that change in the zeitgeist seemed to happen extremely rapidly, over a period of perhaps five years or so. The gamer stigma will similarly disappear rapidly very soon.

Same and same

Not significantly more so than other full desktop environments

Hear, hear