Saw The Arrival the other day and it was constantly blaring this at me. Kind of off putting. When I was at all taken into any moment throughtout the film I was jarred out immediately by this.
My issue with those sounds in Arrival was that I wasn't sure in a few places whether the alien ship was making them, or whether they were part of the soundtrack. This is a hazard of going for the same effect, but trying to do it differently.
I think that was the aim; I think the composer was trying to illustrate the ship using music. I can see how one might find that confusing, but I enjoyed it.
Interesting idea. I'll certainly be thinking about that the next time I see the movie.
At first I thought it was the ship too. Then I came to realize they're trying to get me to have some feeling for a scene where most times I had none. I'd just think "there's that loud sound again."
I happily imagined most if not all of the score was diegetic from the ships, somewhat like the Birdman score.