There are/were approaches around in kernels like includeos, which promised to do as little as possible before hading control to you. So not everybody has to create their own driver's etc, but you get a bootable executable for your application.

Includeos in particular then went towards being a complete "application server" and apparently failed to gain a business as Docker became successful.

https://includeos.org/

Now that we are out of the Cambrian explosion of computing hardware - are drivers such a concern anymore? Is there any chance we start consolidating on a few core interfaces?

I know nothing of hardware, but as far as I know, my keyboard and mouse work everywhere because there is a formal specification on how human interface devices are supposed to operate.

There are probably good (and anti-competitive) reasons for why hardware still needs bespoke drivers, but from the outside, it seems like something we could address. I have no interest in loading your artisanally crafted Wifi driver.

You could use a library as a base.