Have you read the interview?

Of course, AT trying to push Minix now is a complete waste. I only commented on your post because you seemed to argue about AT's failure of getting Minix to the forefront back then by referring to what Linux has now.
If AT had pushed Minix in 1992 much more, he may have succeeded.
Today, there is no question that it is an exercise in futility.
I actually read Rick Rashid's microkernel papers back in the early 90ies. From an academically standpoint, they had a lot going for them. Academics don't have to care much about performance in the real world, though. I have encountered that again and again, e.g., with Ted Nelson's Xanadu system being a compelling system in theory, but failing at scaleability. There is a reason why http succeeded (thank you TBL and Roy Fielding) and Xanadu is a foot-note in history (having met Ted Nelson, his influence of course was very important, but Xanadu was never going to work.)
Coming back to AT, he is an academic, and it is obvious that he doesn't understand the embedded systems space. I don't expect Minix to get any foothold in the embedded space.
On the other hand, I am sure all the embedded vendors using Linux who "neglect" to provide the sources as required by the GPL (or who would like to restrict access, see the recent AVM case in Germany, covered by LWN here: https://lwn.net/Articles/466710/) would love to have an alternative as cheap (i.e., free) as Linux. There just isn't any...