Avoiding the OS abstraction trap

"Coding is easy, know-how is hard."
So true. To write a good driver you need to know both the hardware's secrets and the kernel's secrets. It is basically impossible to have a driver that does not need kernel secrets - which an abstracted driver tries to do (exception being the graphics drivers based on the opengl specs).

There is much more people with kernel knowledge than a with particular hardware knowledge. A well documented driver written in a language that is easy to understand to kernel hackers will widen the potential circle of hardware knowledgeable people. Once the know-how is out there or easy to reach, the writing is a formality.