initrd sizes mushroomed several months ago

[Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net>]

# grep MODULES= /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
MODULES=dep
# ls -Ggh /boot/initrd.img-[5,6]*
-rw-r--r-- 1 6.8M May  8  2022 /boot/initrd.img-5.17.0-1-686
-rw-r--r-- 1  31M Aug  2 03:06 /boot/initrd.img-5.18.0-3-686
-rw-r--r-- 1  31M Sep 30 15:43 /boot/initrd.img-5.19.0-2-686
-rw-r--r-- 1  36M Nov 12 01:36 /boot/initrd.img-6.0.0-3-686

Does anyone here have an explanation for the mega-change in size of initrds after
kernel 5.17? My initramfs.conf has had MODULES=dep since before testing/bullseye
became testing/bookworm.
-- 
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	based on faith, not based on science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata