8 to 9: Kernel modularization -- did it change?

[perryh at pluto.rain.com]

Doug Barton <dougb at freebsd.org> wrote:

> loading modules through loader.conf is
> veeeeeerrrrryyyyyy sssssllllloooooowwwwww ...

Is it noticeably slower to load (say) a 6MB kernel + 2MB of
modules than to load an 8MB kernel?  If so, any idea why?