Sure. But fundamentally IBM sells hardware and services, so they want software to be as cheap as possible. It's all about commoditizing your complements.
AIX requires hardware AND support with high margins on both. Linux can be run on a plain jane Intel box. I don't know, maybe you're barking up the right tree, I'm often confused at IBM's decision-making, and also confused about the marketplace pushing Linux so hard, but I still highly value IBM's products.