Well, I have my own opinions about RMS. I wonder why most of the population thinks of RMS that way. A recent slashdot post almost confirms this:
It is either that the majority population has skewed eyes, or RMS isn't projecting his message in a way that garners trust and wins people.
It is quite common for the majority population to have skewed eyes because they are systematically misinformed. For instance, most Americans today believe that Iraq launched the 9/11 attacks, although this is false, because Dubya has persistently misinformed them.
Something similar is happening here: the idea that the system is "Linux" typically reaches people before I do. When people learn the system is "Linux", they often think it was mainly developed by Linus Torvalds; when I tell them the truth, they think I am lying. Or they may condemn me for asking them to make a change.
If you call the system "Linux", you increase the handicap, so that more people will condemn me. If you call it "GNU/Linux", you will tend to reduce the handicap.