I guess I am one that never fully transferred to Windows. I use Linux for many reasons the #1 reason is I can take a raw kernel and custom compile a system for a computer, strip out what I don’t need and add what I do thus I have a system custom made for that computer.
Example, I have an old Compaq Armada Titanium 3 gig hard drive 512 ram I custom compiled a kernel that runs like a dream on this old machine.
I have one old desktop that has 25 partitions and 25 different OS on it reading thru the grub list is like reading a book! This one was my old bug machine’s I installed different distro’s to try out and search for bugs never had a problem with it lmao!
Sounds like you have a real legitimate reason for compiling a custom kernel.
Most of the time, however, when I see “I have no desire to recompile my system (or my kernel)” it’s typically from people that want to sound sophisticated but really aren’t. As a pretty heavy linux user I do very little compiling (most of what I need I can get binaries for) and even if I do have to compile - then so what - the machine does all the work - I just have to type a few commands. But in the main, that’s why we have distros - so most things don’t have to be compiled.
I have used half a dozen distros on mostly Dells for the past four years and never compiled anything.