That's certainly an interesting way to look at it. Seems like there are different points of view not only in the Linux vs GNU+Linux debate but also between those who support calling it GNU+Linux as well. And then there's an internal debate of whether it's better to call it GNU/Linux, GNU+Linux or LiGNUx and some people downright omit the slash and call it GNU Linux. So many nuances.

And no, I don't think Alpine Linux's devs did it just to spite the GNU Project. They probably did it simply to make it lighter on resources for embedded and container use. Also, there is a belief that the glibc and coreutils' code isn't tidy enough, although if they thought so it would have been nice of them to contribute their alternative solutions to the GNU Project which they did not do for whatever reason.