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While that is nice I'm not quite understanding how this is a security issue? Can code reuse attacks exploit it?

Yes, look at ROP gadgets, for example.

Here's an example

http://mainisusuallyafunction.blogspot.com/2012/11/attacking...

> Actually, file descriptions. The description is the kernel state pertaining to an open file. The descriptor is a small integer referring to a file description. When we send an FD into a UNIX socket, the descriptor number received on the other end might be different, but it will refer to the same description.↩

Oh man, that perfectly explains a formerly-unanswered question I had about how that mechanism worked. Thanks for linking.

And then you have Thumb instructions. If you don't know if you'll stay in Thumb or ARM mode, you can still have weird instruction mixing.

That's a fair criticism.

Had - afaik Thumb is gone in aarch64.

you also have authenticated pointers in ARM which is a very significant advantage over x86