I'd say that's a very valid argument in principle. If you want to start contributing to the Linux kernel, you'll have to start somewhere - but you can't start refactoring entire subsystems, rather you'll start with small patches and it's very natural to make minor procedural and technical mistakes at that stage. [1]

However, in this particular case, I agree that it is not a valid argument since it is doubtful whether the beginning kernel contributor's patches are in good faith.

[1] Torvalds encouraging new contributors to send in trivial patches back in 2004: https://lkml.org/lkml/2004/12/20/255