I agree there's no point in using sudo, but what's the problem? You
don't need to edit the kernel sources merely to build a new kernel. You
can build your kernel outside the tree using for example:
make O=/home/user/kernel/tree/ menuconfig
make O=/home/user/kernel/tree/
This is how I do it, too, when testing the kernel before I do it for real. This way, the code stays owned by root and I can make to my hearts content, with different kernels going into different directories that I control.
--
Bill Longman