From the ground up has been done at least once, but given there are multiple layers of interface and driver, it might not be at the right level for whatever hardware you have.
I'm thinking specifically of how pipewire recently came along and basically took over the functions previously provided by pulseaudio, to the point of pretending to be Pulse where necessary so that things don't break.
FWIW, I recently learned that my motherboard has features that weren't unlocked by default in my distro. Not related to sound, mind you, but nonetheless, I've gained access to that now. It required loading an extra kernel module. The same might be required to get the best out of your sound card.
