I was staying in a holiday cottage in Kirkland and the only reason that leg is in there was so I could upload to my GPS, so no, you aren’t really missing out on anything.
I fell really lucky when I did this as there had been a bit of snowfall that week, but that day was quite calm and sunny
Pic taken later the same day;
^ You wouldn’t have thought that was February apart form the snow.
The ridge line was ridable although some of the frozen rocks made the going hard!
The climb up to Haystacks was hike-a-bike and I doubt it’ll be much easier even in good weather.
That said, the descent into Buttermere is technical / rocky to begin with then really picks up the pace.
If you are starting there then I would recommend doing it clockwise and missing out the Kirkland leg.
HTH, Kev.