Kernels generally aren't all that smart. They're usually dumb and simple programs that do things based on some average defaults that look okay and might work fo

Kernels generally aren't all that smart. They're usually dumb and simple programs that do things based on some average defaults that look okay and might work for most people. The kernel needs to be told what to do especially if data integrity is important. Like if some dude thought it was a great idea to store up writes and do them in large transactions and you're writing a filesystem that needs verifiable writes, you turn that off or force it off if you can't disable it otherwise. Relying on the utter sausage factory that is your average kernel is a recipe for disaster. That is especially true for Linux in my experience.