they're not standard ELF files, more likely they're using the ELF format just to have a list of "load address-size-data" stuff assembled with some custom linker

they're not standard ELF files, more likely they're using the ELF format just to have a list of "load address-size-data" stuff assembled with some custom linker script, and they did not bother to change it, probably because of integrity checks or sanity checks along the assembly line would have been much more fun if they switched to PE format though, like they did with EFI/UEFI :D