ar1021_i2c is registered as an I2C device with name="MICROCHIP_AR1021_I2C" which is too long. Because of that kernel reports invalid modalias "i2c:MICROCHIP_AR1021_I2" ("C" is missing) and the module doesn't get loaded. Also, interesting thing is that the module itself has the full modalias (as reported by modinfo).
Jean, Wolfram, do we expect client->name to be NULL terminated? I.e right now the driver uses exactly 20 symbols (I2C_NAME_SIZE) when filling out i2c_device_id structure. Should we shorten the name or have i2c core allocate I2C_NAME_SIZE + 1 for name fields if it wants NULL-termination?
Ah, it looks it is only by chance file2alias.c outputs full name as it also expects it to be NULL-terminated and 0 driver data in the ID instance serves as that terminator. I'll shorten the name in the driver.