As detailed in https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=948519 and https://wiki.debian.org/BoottimeEntropyStarvation, lack of boot-time entropy can contribute to multi-minute pauses during system initialization in some hardware configurations. While userspace workarounds, e.g. haveged, are documented, the in-kernel jitter entropy collector eliminates the need for such workarounds.
It cherry-picks cleanly to 4.19.y and 4.14.y. I'm particularly interested in the former.
Thanks for considering this. noah