Yeah, that's the biggest issue here. The kernel is not large because the kernel devs suck at their job, it's large because the default build includes a bazillio

Yeah, that's the biggest issue here. The kernel is not large because the kernel devs suck at their job, it's large because the default build includes a bazillion drivers for a bazillion devices. When you build the kernel for precisely the devices that you need, the image is going to be a lot smaller.