The Linux kernel is one of the world's largest collaborative projects, and it shows. The strength of Linux is that tens of thousands of people work on it, and it can be expected to support virtually all technology you might want to apply it to. The disadvantage is that coordinating tens of thousands of people is nearly impossible, and while Linux has central leadership, they're mainly concerned with organizing development and less with providing a unified vision or architecture for the kernel. Each subsystem has a great deal of soverignty in their affairs.

That being said, if a group took it upon themselves to be a general-purpose "refactoring" team, without a focus on a single subsystem, they would probably be able to address these problems, albiet only if they have a strong stomach for bikeshedding. But Linux is made of volunteers, so you, dear reader, need to step up if you want this done.