What you're saying doesn't make any sense. The linked article wants Linux people to use ZFS instead of btrfs. How on earth is it "self-entitled bike shedding" to point out the clearly correct reason for ZFS not being in Linux?
I'm sorry you're interested in "actual tech". But in the real world stuff like the legal ability to use software sometimes gets in the way of our geeky aspirations.
This may be one of the few discussions where the licensing discussion is apropos, so consider my prior rant as something broader.
But it doesn't help when "great harm" hyperbole gets thrown around. The world has benefited from the gift, unless anyone is daft enough to argue that Illumos' existence, FreeBSD's incorporation of ZFS and DTrace, and OSX's incorporation of DTrace, are a bad thing. Hell, DTrace is even being used for PS3 game production.
I'm sorry you're interested in "actual tech". But in the real world stuff like the legal ability to use software sometimes gets in the way of our geeky aspirations.