> Since all instructions are 32bit wide you can't load a 32bit immediate value in a single instruction, instead the assembler's "LI" mnemonic generates a pair of instructions (LUI/ORI) for large immediate values (ARM prefers PC-relative loads).

For example:

    ldr rn,=0xCAFEBABE

Will actually be assembled as:

    ldr rn,[pc,#(literals - .)]

  literals:
    .word 0xCAFEBABE

IMO it really is odd that some instruction to the assembler are not direct translations. In theory it can cause some issues if the developer makes irresponsible assumptions based on the program text. The mnemonics make life easier for folks who are familiar with the assembler, but harder for someone poking around doing some detective work.