This is really nifty, because I used to think pieces of code like the kernel were these totally-beyond-me blocks of work. This helps explain it, and I can actually follow it, mostly.
I had that same idea, but like 15 years ago. Back then we had to hide from sabertooths and compile our own kernel.
Compiling a kernel had been even harder before that time (and was a decade old), but it was relatively straightforward to actually patch and compiling the modules one wanted. Most of the time one could read the modules or drivers. It was much scarier to get a device to boot your new kernel…
Before that I used to “build” MUDs, which was always harder than kernels for me. All .c and .h files, and any change and the whole thing had to recompile.
This is one reason I love the open web: everything I’ve ever learned was a view-source and text edit away. 
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