I thought he made it explicit going into the Linux challenge but it’s not stated clearly as such in the first ep (Linux Hates Me - Daily Driver Challenge Pt.1).

In the video Linus says:

• he could use industry contacts/internal resources to decided which Linux distro to use for gaming but wanted to use the same resources as anyone else would have
• Linux gets sold on it’s customization but “speaking on behalf of normies, I don’t want …”
• “in my defense a lot of that stuff was jargon that an average user might not understand” in regards to the PopOS event (apt install steam ~ type yes do as I say).