Maybe it hurds in a good way.

Nah, it’s a kernel it does kernel stuff and does not offer anything a normal user notices compared to other kernels.

It might be interesting for people who work on kernels just to see different ways on how to solve common problems.

but user adoption is abysmal comparatively

I guess this is a matter of perspective. What I was saying in my previous comment is that what people commonly refer to as “Linux” (as in “Linux distributions”) is not just Linux (which is just a kernel) but also includes a bunch of other stuff, including GNU (that is what GNU/Linux refers to). If you’re talking about the actual thing called Linux, you’d be right, because most GNU systems are GNU/Linux systems, whereas arguably most Linux systems are not GNU systems; Alpine and Android are non-GNU Linux systems.

However, if like many in the Linux fandom you discount Android, then most Linux systems are GNU systems and vice-versa.