Re: This is what happens when drivers are in kernel
"Back in those days it was more important a snappier GUI than kernel stability and security."
No it wasn't, not where PCs were supposed to be "business productivity tools" anyway.
But it was much easier to measure performance than it was to measure productivity, so performance is what got measured, and what was optimised so it could look good when quoted in the usual reviews.
"Performance" numbers got better when more stuff was in kernel mode, but productivity got noticeably worse as a conseuqence of the same changes.