Kernel update via NVIDIA???

Installed 11.1 today and went straight to update the software, quite a lot of updates as expected, rebooted. Then went to install NVIDIA drivers via 1-click install, and was surprised to find myself with an updated kernel which hadn’t come with the system update done just five minutes earlier. GRUB lists both but considers the older one the default. NVIDIA won’t work with that one. Isn’t that strange? I would have expected a new kernel to arrive with the system update and to be made the GRUB default, not “smuggled in” via the NVIDIA driver installation…