Well, as far as kernel is concerned strings aren't a problem. Outside VFS they don't exist. Inside VFS everything is chopped into usually short pathname compone

Well, as far as kernel is concerned strings aren't a problem. Outside VFS they don't exist. Inside VFS everything is chopped into usually short pathname components which are hashed for dcache consumption. On x86_64 hashing is not byte-by-byte anymore. Fixing pathetic macro system and type system (if that qualifies at all) would get rid of many many bugs.