Right, because the GPL is viral, forcing everything to be GPL-compatible or you'll have problems. Some FOSS licenses aren't GPL-compatible, notably the CDDL used for OpenZFS, which is why it has been a part of FreeBSD but not Linux (and it's available now outside the kernel).

The GPL makes more sense the more "application-y" your project is, but if you want it used more broadly, more permissive licenses make more sense. Yes, the LGPL exists, but there are still a ton of caveats to it.

The code in something like coreutils isn't all that useful generally, so protecting it with the GPL doesn't bring a ton of value, whereas a more permissive license could.

I like the GPL and its variants and I use it from time to time. I also like the MIT and similar permissive licenses, and I use them as well. Use the right license for the use case. I think the MIT is fine here.