I know, which is one of the reasons I don't use a Debian-based
distro. I want nothing to do with one whose stated goal is to
make it so difficult to change the kernel that the users won't
do it.

Huh?  I use "make install modules_install" from my kernel source 
dir (which I usually get via git) and that works fine, as in 
every distro on earth.

Hehe, but I seldom use distro kernels, not even when I used Red 
Hat or Mandrake in old times :-)