I set out to write all this up because so much of the existing documentation (including the man pages) is vague, incomplete, or nonexistent. FWIW, I think this is probably to be expected for a system as complex as the Linux kernel.

[1]: https://blog.packagecloud.io/eng/2016/06/22/monitoring-tunin...

No, it isn't.

Sure, reading the source code won't hurt, but I'd wager that most people who have set up adequately tuned servers did not need to read a single line of the kernel's source.

Putting such a definitive statement right at the top of this document makes me feel far less confident in trusting what it says. Is everything in it going to be just as over the top?