By your own admission, if I'm a PHP developer writing websites, I should be running Linux-2.6.34-pre-alpha to debug it? Maybe I want to write a kernel module in my spare time, too?
Not all developers are born/bred/interested/working alike.
Of course, in this case things are reversed, you have a hardcore hacker trying a new DE. But just because he can write an operating system kernel, it doesn't mean he's interested in contributing to a DE...