Are you saying codes of conduct make the transmission of misinformation is inherently easier, e.g by sewing distrust in institutions or expertise, or normalizing a gish gallop argumentative style? Are you saying Linus Torvald's behaviour prevented those problems?
It has not occurred to me before, but I don't see why the cancel culture surrounding such matters couldn't be used as an attack vector. Basically, target key maintainers who are vulnerable to this (white, male, history of questionable interactions etc) and push until you force them out one way or another. Then when project gets in trouble because of the lack of qualified manpower, pitch your own agent as replacement. For bonus points, make it someone who hits the right buttons wrt "diversity".
I think it's more that it leads to brain drain. Be it by misinformation, by discouraging anyone who doesn't fit [demographic of leadership], or by simply not giving proper code reviews in the name of politeness. All 3 ways creep up and the code base suffers from lack of care, and/or lack of talent.
We can certainly debate how effective old methods were (and yes, I have no doubt Torvald's old behavior turned off many a talent) and how we can improve on them, but in a more general viewpoint we need to remember that many open source code bases are, or started as, volunteers providing their knowledge in their free time. It doesn't take much to make them walk to the next repo. Or not contribute to OS at all.
