I get that there is such a preference, but why not then have a manager for every thematic class of packages imaginable? Why not, for example, have an “office suite manager”, where the user can pick LibreOffice or OpenOffice or Calligra, or whatever other office suite exists in the repos? Why not have a “text editor manager” with checkboxes for every text editor in the repos? A “drawing program manager”? Does it not sound absurd when you think about it that way?
But then, what makes kernels such a special class of packages that they need their own manager?
As a matter of fact, one installs kernels much less frequently than most user applications, so if anything, they are some of the packages that deserve the least their own special manager application…