> Unfortunately, UEFI/ACPI or simliar seems to be going nowhere in the ARM world
What do you mean by that? Every ARM server has UEFI/ACPI, and it's now looking like every new PC using ARM will include it out of the box. The Google Pixel smartphones use UEFI. There are even UEFI images for Raspberry Pi 4. Sure, the embedded space is probably going to be holding out for a while longer, but seems disingenuous to say UEFI is going nowhere in the ARM world.
True, but most of todays SBCs and phones don't support UEFI. If you look at SBSA, it has server in the name.
You should be able to put vanilla Ubuntu on a SD card and pop it into a computer and get at least the basic features working. Instead, now you have the choice between opaque firmware images from the vendor (with an ancient kernel, and random additions to userspace), or building your own images with a lot of tinkering.
What do you mean by that? Every ARM server has UEFI/ACPI, and it's now looking like every new PC using ARM will include it out of the box. The Google Pixel smartphones use UEFI. There are even UEFI images for Raspberry Pi 4. Sure, the embedded space is probably going to be holding out for a while longer, but seems disingenuous to say UEFI is going nowhere in the ARM world.