What's the better alternative to dracut? Normally I compile everything into the kernel, but have been having issues with my Intel firmware and need an initramfs.
Genkernel is a good alternative generator, but you can also write your own initramfs and build it into the kernel. A custom initramfs (see also) is pretty flexible- I've had success setting up cryptsetup, lvm, and dropbear sshd by reading the various wiki examples. Not sure about your Intel issue though
i like booster because its fast and comes with arch, though when i'm building my own kernels i pull a yes2modconfig and only bake in my rootfs of choice into the kernel so i can go initramfs-less. i don't do anything complicated like encryption though so ymmv