> Linux From Scratch was never really about running the system anyway

It definitely is. See the bootscripts:

https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/development/chapte...

Admittedly the main problems I had was with configuring the linux kernel. I have no good solution to make this simpler. That config file is sooooooooooo huge ... no clue how to handle this. There is no way I have enough time to sift through all the options. Or compare what changed from kernel to kernel version. Anyone has an idea how to handle this on your own?