That is factually wrong: if you create other EFI entries with different kernel payloads, then enroll them in your UEFI bios, you can select them at boot time in a menu.

This is how I test cmdline options (same kernel packaged in different .EFI)

If you forgot to do that before a problem, but still have the old payloads around, you can even use the UEFI to add EFI payloads by selecting their files from your EFI partition.

I am not an expert in uefi but my uefi system does not give me the ability to pass command line arguments to the kernel. I actually went to check and took a picture[1].

According to your statement that means you need a working system to repack your kernel if you do not use grub. That kind of proves the opposite of what you write.

With grub you can set kernel arguments in an ephemeral way by just interrupting the boot. In the past, when testing failing kernels it was mighty useful to add a magic argument to the kernel.

[1] https://ibb.co/6vS1VX9

I guess I'm really curious what there is to gain by bypassing grub if anything?

> This got me looking around at how one would load a luks or dm-crypt encrypted drive from efi without grub.

systemd-boot lets you define an encrypted drive at installation, which is what I do for my LUKS devices. Whole thing works pretty flawlessly, in my experience.

> I guess I'm really curious what there is to gain by bypassing grub if anything?

I mean, you're not "bypassing" anything; Linux has molecularity at it's core, it's perfectly normal to swap out it's surrounding components to personalize your system. Personally, I pass on GRUB because systemd-boot is fast. Booting with GRUB takes 10-45 seconds depending on your hardware and encryption setup: I've never seen systemd-boot take longer than 15. If you're not dual-booting or doing any fancy baremetal stuff, I think most people would be perfectly happy with it. GRUB certainly still has it's place though, and I'm glad it exists.

You can even enroll this EFI payloads from within the BIOS by just selecting the file from the EFI partition if you forgot to add them into your UEFI (ie if they don't show in your F12 boot options)