It absolutely is on the cutting edge in lots of ways. It can move faster than other systems that have to wait for full releases to make major changes, and those changes don’t have to satisfy a board of directors by incorporating the latest buzzword scams. The problem is that it doesn’t have critical mass. This works on a similar network effect to what we see in the fediverse. It will just take getting to a tipping point where hardware and software makers can no longer ignore it, and then I think we’ll quickly see a change. It’s already happened in servers and general hacker gear and maker stuff. It just hasn’t quite made it there for the desktop. Who knows how long that will take.