Apple never upgraded to GPL3 coreutils, bash and remained away from anything GPL3…

Oh, you mean specifically GPL v3 license, not any GPL license.

Yeah, broad tivoisation and patent clauses make it a problem, because making any patent litigation on unrelated grounds has potential to lose ability to ship the entire OS.

Is that true? If I make a product, and that product runs some embedded Linux system with GPLv3-licensed coreutils, are you confident that my product isn't infected by GPLv3?

Canonical is trying to position Ubuntu as a relevant player in the embedded space.

This hasn't stopped anybody from releasing a product that I'm aware of.

What information channels do you have which would notify you any time someone decides not to develop a product?

There is a lot of FUD spread about GPL so companies tend to just nope out entirely.