loader.efi module path vs kernel directory

I recently needed to recover a system by manually preloading a driver.
To a bit of surprise, simple 'load $modname' did not work, I had to use 'load 
/boot/kernel/$modname.ko'.  I didn't have to do this in a long time, but I 
recall that the short command used to work.  Additionally, required modules also 
failed to get loaded automatically because loader couldn't find them.

I am not sure what the issue is.  Is it that /boot/kernel is not in module path 
(as per /boot/defaults/loader.conf) ? Or is it that /boot/kernel does not get 
added to the *effective* module path?

Thanks!
-- 
Andriy Gapon