Ditrokernels config is a good starting point. They support most hardware etc.

IIRC, localmodconfig only checks for loaded modules. If so, I'd have to start every process and app that requires a kernel module. Like a virtual machine, plugging in a Ventoy stick so the filesystem for it is loaded. Accessing every disk drive if the filesystem differs. I would remember it all.

Instead, what I do is start with the distro config, run menuconfig or similar, disable everything Intel (except for my NIC) and Wireless. Personal choices of course and hardware dependent. Saves a bunch of time on compiling kernel.

You can see all the options here: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst

Search for "make menuconfig" for example. Only 1 in the whole document. You will see the rest of them and short explanations too.

About "make mrproper", you should run it as soon as you have extracted the kernel and changed to its directory, the source code. Linux kernel team IIRC, gives no guarantees it will be squaky clean. There might be some crap left behind. make mrproper cleans it up. Yes, it also deletes the .config for the kernel, if you've made one or extracted from distro. You can rename it, .config1 or whatever, it will not be removed. Afterwards you can copy it back as .config. I say copy because you might not get everything right the first time. I just keep adding numbers to the .config file so I know what is the most current. And rename that to .config. If I did mess up a kernel compile and ended up with none-working stuff, I will run make mrproper again in kernel sourcecode directory. Then copy latest .config to .config. Adjust the kernel options via make menuconfig or similar and try again.

You can also add a name to the end of the kernel with "LOCALVERSION". You can look for it in menuconfig or similar with Shift + 7. Double-click it or something to be able to type text. I was lazy and named mine "Mine" in this example after kernel compilation is done, to install said kernel on Manjaro:

# check /usr/lib/modules for correct kernel version string

ls /usr/lib/modules

# 6.18.1-Mine

sudo cp -v arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-6.18.1-Mine

sudo mkinitcpio -k 6.18.1-Mine -g /boot/initramfs-6.18.1-Mine.img

sudo cp System.map /boot/System.map-6.18.1-Mine

sudo ln -sf /boot/System.map-6.18.1-Mine /boot/System.map

sudo update-grub

Ready for reboot and testing. The Grub menu will say -Mine at the end, easy to spot among the countless kernels I usually have to choose from. I tend to forget XFS filesystem support. Doesn't go so well since my OS is running XFS, doh!

I like Dracut because it is just 3 lines of commands and faster at it. Some Arch-based distros use it instead of mkinitcpio.

Of course you can expand on the kernel, by for example downloading the Zen-kernel patches and incorporating them in your kernel. You can get those from here: https://github.com/zen-kernel/zen-kernel/releases

Extract the file to kernel source directory. And run: patch -p1 < "patchname"

There should be a place in for example menuconfig where you can pick your architecture, generation of Intel or AMD CPU. Courtesy of a Zen patch. I forget exact details. Then configure the rest of the kernel, compile etc.