This should concern a lot of us. What if such kernel maintainers start moving on and we don't have replacements for them? Let me guess... use AI in the kernel? Not this time.

You need *actual* experts that have extensive experience in kernel development for this.

Wonder if drivers were adopted under newer low-level languages (Rust/Zig/Odin/C3/Hare etc..) if that would boost participation rates for newer kernel device driver builders..

This has been a concern of mine for a while. Most of the kernel developers I know are from the baby boomer generation and have been slowly retiring one by one. Some may continue to support it in their retirement but some of them are jaded from all the politics that has crept into development and I can not say I would blame them. I am curious if there are enough developers to back-fill that are nearly as experienced. My biggest concern with their replacements would be people trying to bring in every shiny, exciting and trendy {practice, language, framework} turning Linux into an unstable mess once there is not enough people to push back.

Highlighting and submitting this not to shame or put down the maintainer at all -- if anything to thank them for their work! -- but to call out the various giant orgs and companies that make bank on the kernel and not funding such work instead relying on the hackers who do it for the love of the game so to speak.

While I agree with your sentiment re: giant orgs, it appears in this case one did fund his work.. "Kalle Valo who has been a Qualcomm Atheros engineer for more than the past decade"

Either way - I thank them for all their hard work, and hope they enjoy whatever comes next! :-)