> Why is NTP support even an option? Why isn't it simply part of the base system?

A semi-related datapoint: adding the NTP kernel option makes the Shark
randomly hang (seems to be dependent on how much disk activity you do).

Yes, that's a bug, and needs to be fixed; I spent a fair amount of time
working on it, but I came up with nuthin'.  I believe interrupts on the
Shark are sufficiently weird that it needs someone smarter than me to
figure it out.

Anway, my point is that there are perhaps a few issues with NTP that need
to be worked out, and maybe that's why it's optional.

--Ken