After reading up on both udevstart's and udevtrigger's sources, I think using udevstart is why we don't have as good netcard detection as we should. Udevstart seems to only create needed devices, without also doing the triggering udevtrigger does. The fact most distributions use udevtrigger to create devices and coldplug also speaks for this.
I suggest replacing the call in tc-config to udevstart with udevtrigger. Same path, no options, still backgrounded. Once it works as well / better, udevstart can then be removed later on.
Also, a similar backgrounded call to udevtrigger should probably be added to the laptop block, right before the echo line, to scan for pcmcia cards and load their modules.