Same here, only used menuconfig since both config and xconfig were unpractical. I'd be curious to read how many people still compile their kernel today for normal use (ie not for testing or kernel development). Back in the day I did because a new card often meant the driver (if any) was available as source only, while today nearly everything has been already built into modules and can be installed as such.
I compile my own ... for fun mostly. There are performance gains in selecting the correct CPU architecture for your machine. I have some old machines and it really makes a difference vs. distro stock kernels.
The modern procedure (for upgrading) is pretty straightforward:
make oldconfig; make; make modules_install; make install; reboot
