I didn't appreciate a linen at first because of the pile of hones I have, like the rest of us. But for a simplified regimen where someone may not want to:
1) use powders and pastes
2) pay for a super fine stone

Then I think if those two conditions are there, a good linen really steps up a mediocre stone (like an average coticule) and really makes it easier to keep the same razor going for a long time without coming back to the stone. It also makes it less crticial for the leather on the strop to be anything other than very smooth.

That's just my opinion.

I was in a cycle where I was super fanatical about horse butt in its state from 1 month of use to about 6 months after that. Through that period, it sort of does the double role of a linen and a strop, but it eventually gets glass smooth. Adding a linen to the regimen makes it so that once it settles into glass smooth, there's no reason for it to try to do the job of both.

Aside from a good stone, everything else in razor sharpening and maintaining seems to be a moving target. A strop starts as something, it breaks into being something else, and eventually it becomes a third thing.