Can't the kernel set up hardware-backed memory maps to partially blind itself to other memory regions? (Only "partially" because even then I expect it could just change the mappings, but it's still a protection against accidental corruption)

That's standard part of setups like that, the cooperative aspect is that they have to set the memory map so they don't overlap.

Wonder what the use cases are. Doesn’t feel like the kernels are hotswappable, so why is it preferred over VMs?

If nothing else, it is a path to making them hotswappable.