I just identified that the regression appeared between 3.3.6 and 3.4.1. Beyond
that, Debian has no images for me to try. I never installed Linux without using
Debian packages. And even building with make-kpkg is something I haven't done
for a number of years.

If more testing is wanted, I would need guidance. To install intermediary
images, and maybe also to test more quickly, as with my current manual test,
just testing (after the target version is installed) requires about 5 minutes
per version.