You're missing the obvious basic logic that Linux needs Stallman's software to fully operate. Stallmans code will run on lots of software other than Linux, meaning Linux has a dependency on Stallman, not the other way around. Torvalds is no dictator either, whether he likes the sound of that or not, else he could switch away from Stallman if he had differences in philosophy, but obviously he can't.
My recommendation is use Unix instead, and leave these foreign/freeware clone headaches behind.
I use Unix at school and Linux at home.
Does what I need it to--and does the best job. Which is IMHO the most important design and usage criterion of an OS.
Now I'm just studying what makes it all tick (read: technical nitty-gritty) in my spare time and on my own volition...
You've got a point there. But without the Linux kernel, GNU doesn't have a complete "free" O/S, so Stallman would have a dependency somewhere else. (Merkey perhaps... that would be fun. ;-)
As long as Torvalds has a choice of which version of the GPL he can use, he should be happy (IMHO).