I enjoy the argument because it’s a taboo, so nobody has a good argument. Nobody thinks it’s a real command. Nobody thinks for a moment Linus even wants that person dead. It’s Just Not How We Do Things here in Polite Society. We say “fuck you, c-loving geriatric” but “I can’t wait to see you in a grave, old man” is considered different even though the literal words are irrelevant. The speaker likely has no real interest in fucking the other coder, nor seeing them in a grave.

This amusingly puts it in precisely the same category as like, grandma being upset that their gkid won’t wear a bra or shave their pits.