You don't need to implement GDI to do this. Basically, they still know how to draw a line, etc. It doesn't want or need to know about the GDI hWnd, or any other things. That, they won't be able to do away with. Also, I can't see them being cheaper.
Drivers are cheap compared to chips.
But it doesn't mean that a card without a text mode can't work with Linux, or anything else. Sorry to rant at you this much, but I'm getting tired of the flamewar too.