Stock kernels will be the norm for some time.
If you try to pop the unpopped kernels in the microwave, you go back in time.
A lot of people want to have market share numbers, lots of users, because that's how they view their self worth. For me, one of the most important things for Linux is having a big community that is actively testing new kernels; it's the only way to support the absolute insane amount of different hardware we deal with.
There is no system but GNU and Linux is one of it's kernels