Just run sysctl -a an you'll see what I am talking about...
You'll get the same results for hw.cpufrequency, hw.cpufrequency_min & hw.cpufrequency_max
This means that the sysctl command does not work properly, a fact we already recognized when evaluating tools like "XBench"...

btw. the man pages say:
The sysctl utility retrieves kernel state and allows processes with appropriate privilege to set kernel state.

I think kernel state means actual kernel state.