They’re taking the piss out of Linus’s own justification. Linus himself was the one to use this semantics argument unironically.

Because selling to the highest bidder, isn’t selling. It’s auctioning,

And that’s different somehow, at least according to Linus’ explanation of this whole thing. I think we can trust Linus on this one, he has a proven track record of accuracy and honesty. LOL