RAID sets look like single disks to OS's, it's a matter of the controller having drivers for the OS.
As for "I know for a fact that the new kernel supports RAD 0, 1, 5, and some hybrid RAID drives", software RAID has been available in linux for a very long time, at least Redhat 6.0 and the 2.0 Kernel, so there's where the kernel needing to support RAID must come in..
And, there are some newer drivers for the HighPoint based controllers available for Redhat 7.