overriding kernel modules on 2.6.x

Has anyone else noticed that is not possible to override kernel modules
reliably on 2.6.x/FC2? The new module-init-tools depmod does not have
the option of specifying search directories and it just recurses (in
readdir order) through the directories in /lib/modules/`uname -r`. 

I stumbled into this because I would like to be able to leave the
original alsa modules that come with 2.6.x in place, but be able to
override them with newer versions by installing an extra package. 

Apparently I have two solutions, one would be to configure the 2.6.x
kernel without alsa (lousy), the other (don't like it either) would be
to patch module-init-tools. Simplest patch I can think of that does not
alter functionality would be to preorder (alphabetically) the module
directories before recursing into them...

-- Fernando