To be honest, x86 seems to be heading in the same direction these days. It generally has enough of an emulation of traditional PC architecture for boot purposes, but look at - for example - how CPU power saving on modern Intel chips requires the co-operation of stuff like the SATA links, or how traditional PC interfaces like PS/2 for keyboard/mouse and HD Audio are being replaced with more embedded-like interfaces such as I2C touchpads and I2S audio links connected to vendor-specific controllers.