Further, all current kernel build and test etc. scripts are unaware of 'make firmware_install', and it is unfair to everybody to force a flag-day build process change on people, just to keep their drivers in the same working state today as it was yesterday.
IMHO we want firmware built in as the default for the moment. If the
firmware model makes sense (as I think it does) then the distributions
will catch up, turn it on and sort out the default behaviour - exactly as
they did all those years ago with modules, more recently with "use an
initrd" and so on.
as "making no sense". All these are real world examples where users FOLLOWING THEIR NORMAL, PROSCRIBED KERNEL PROCESSES will produce
I hope you mean "prescribed" ;)
The only valid assumption here is to assume that the user is /unaware/ of these new steps they must take in order to continue to have a working system.
To a large extent not the user but their distro - consider "make install"