I feel like we are missing the most important context.

He basically lit the fire that started the whole debacle.

He is known for his investigative journalism as mentioned. And he is from the Youtube sphere like Linus and has done collaborations with him.

Steve however, turned his eye of Sauron on Linus this time and called out inaccuracies in his content due to a rush to meet timelines and a huge bungle on a small company's proprietary item.

This caused Linus to react badly and the community was pissed. Mud slinging started and an ex-employee's sudden revelation of the toxic culture of the workplace(still not verified), had started a massive shitshow.