When I said 'broken-out kernel modules', I was referring to modules that are distributed as independent packages in the repository, instead of just sitting in /

When I said 'broken-out kernel modules', I was referring to modules that are distributed as independent packages in the repository, instead of just sitting in /lib/modules/$(uname -r) I know exactly why modules exist, having written my own several times. The real benefit for stuff distributed with the mainline kernel is not runtime loading (you could just build them all statically), but unloading and reloading.