The new 20 episode season is a 10 episode season with 5 webisodes and a cheaper side project like a cartoon or anthology.
Honestly this is better to me because it enables the good plots of the smaller episodes to get all the focus without forcing some awful secondary plot to fill run time.
Linus shouldn't have to get involved at all. Each part of the Kernel should be handled independently by the maintainers. Linus responding publicly to outside forces is fine but once he has to step in to handle public fights between individuals who are supposed to work together it is a problem.
Linux staying C focused is a valid thing to do. It is very hard to get folks to contribute to the kernel and if you cut out anyone who doesn't know Rust, a language with at best 5% the adoption rate of C, you will run into spots where sections of the kernel are unmaintained due to no willing and qualified person covering it.
Adding Rust based functionality and support is great. Changing APIs to require maintainers to learn Rust to continue to maintain the code they are experts in is unacceptable.