It was just an example. What applications require hardware support that isn’t baked in? Surely the Mac isn’t being used in an industrial space with niche one off instruments? The point is more things are moving to userpsace and Apple is controlling the kernel as, I think, they should.

Kernel extensions I use out of my head.

USB to ethernet dongle.

Little Snitch.

Karabiner.

Hammerspoon.

NTFS read/write driver.

I really doubt they will all remain working but the dongle is hardware.

As with all such changes there will be with time either open source or manufacturers who support the new user space / kernel lock down mode. What you’ll likely experience is temporary loss of use as things transition. In any case the benefits outside of your specific use case outweigh the headaches in just security alone.