I just think there’s a sizeable gap between “nobody” using something and the mass market appeal encouraged by corporate interests

I’m not sure I follow your point. Why is popularity necessary? Arent windows and macos already popular? If the price to pay for offering a viable alternative to those two is dealing with the likes of Dell and stripe, let alone DHH, is it really such a great option?

In other words, my personal reasons for using linux are significantly weakened by the involvement of american corporations.

The money will likely benefit Linux as a whole

I have major doubts that corporate money (and therefore influence) is a positive thing for linux

Yup. Also, in this case and many others, the reason they disabled the feature was to force people to use their “widgets”. i.e. see more ads.

Never forget: calendar flyout

It was years ago, but that straw broke this camel’s back