In-tree vs. Out-Of-Tree drivers differ in the way how unsupported transceivers are defined (uint vs array of int) for the Kernel module parameters.
This results in:
kernel: ixgbe 0000:5e:00.0: failed to initialize because an unsupported SFP+ module type was detected. kernel: ixgbe 0000:5e:00.0: Reload the driver after installing a supported module. kernel: ixgbe 0000:5e:00.0: removed PHC on eth6