I got close to this realization after learning barely enough U-Boot to launch my own bare metal program for the JH7110. I could never get into Linux From Scratch because it was more focused on getting an entire system working when I really just wanted to see how it spins up to get going.

Then at some point the other week I realized I could technically have a working Linux "system" with nothing more than a kernel and a dirt simple hello world program in /sbin/init.

I haven't had the time or inclination to scratch that itch but it's nice to see this article confirm it.