suddenly forcing changes into the linux kernel, the kernel that literally runs the entire internet, countless businesses, and governments

Of course that would never happen.

They’d just require some ‘EA anti-cheat’ kernel module to be present, or their game will refuse to run. So you’d have to install and activate that module in order to play their game. But there would be no need to modify any computer that doesn’t play their game … so as long as you’re not trying to play games on your internet server, the server is safe.