I have very few code projects that I really truly feel passionate about. In my opinion Linus' violent reactions stems the fact that he truly cares about his product. These violent outburst kinda proofs my point. A tech lead that cares about the product will of course get mad when other messes with their "baby". I myself at times have "lost-it" like that but only when I truly cared about the code. The stability of the Linux kernel is a direct result of this kind of passion. Like it or not the proof is in the pudding.