This is a reminder to myself to explain in the guide (probably in the box explaining old init.d files and their unit files equivalent) that we don't need to have a unit file for microcode_ctl, we simply need to configure "microcode" as a module in the kernel instead of building it *into* the kernel. That way, the module will load the new microcode itself.
done
With kernel 4.14, microcode has to be built into the kernel. How do I load Intel microcode using this kernel?