Whether it was proposed by Linus or not, it still driven by a small amount of people. I do not think it was a good idea from Linus to allow it. I understand the arguments he had, but I think it was a mistake. In the past, he kept the C++ programmers out and I always thought this was a wise decision. And the arguments for C++ were not entirely different, except it was not memory safety but object orientation which was "clearly needed" and "the right way" and everything C is old, obsolete, and wrong. By just saying no he kept this discussions away.