yes, the UEFI initialises the machine such that it is in a state that it can boot that's it's job it's not the fault of the UEFI as a standard or implementati

yes, the UEFI initialises the machine such that it is in a state that it can boot that's it's job it's not the fault of the UEFI as a standard or implementation that your processor manufacturer chose to require the SMM to have its firmware loaded to boot the UEFI also isn't suddenly persistent because there are other devices inside the machine that had firmware loaded into them (would you say the UEFI is persistent because it uploaded new third-party supplied microcode into the CPU?)