Considering that GitHub is probably the second best thing about Git after the fact of its existence, I think that both sides of the table have something valid to say.
However, they also have different concerns. It's only natural that the Linux kernel have stricter commit requirements than most of the projects on github. In the wide respect, you want things to be kinda fast, loose, and easy. However, I wouldn't be inclined to run a kernel with fast, loose, and easy standards.
