> To add to this, unless you are compiling your kernel specifically for your machine, your kernel is going to be a bloated compromise of the set of drivers that your system is most likely to see. That means that you will have dozens, if not hundreds of drivers compiled into your kernel which will never need to be used.

I imagine there's two pools of Linux users: those that compile their own kernel, probably with only the drivers they use; and those that use distribution kernels, which have a small set of compiled in drivers, and a huge initrd with all the drivers. Neither one of those groups ends up with all of the drivers loaded into memory: the compile their own have a small set, the distro kernel people end up with only the drivers they need loaded; both groups have a relatively small kernel footprint.