In your article seem to equivocate on Canonical's responsibility to FOSS:
You state repeatedly that Canonical should contribute more resources to the kernel, in spite of the following:
"[...] I've always thought Ubuntu and Canonical have done quite a bit in expanding the ecosystem and market for Linux, which used to be practically unusable on the desktop. By aspiring to a better, easier and more polished UI, Ubuntu has lifted other Linux distributions and their UIs along with it, in my opinion."
Given that, why should Canonical contribute more to the kernel?