Yes, LDM / STM were great for memcpy-like things (eg graphics). For other loops the usual technique was to use predicated instructions to avoid pipeline flushes

Yes, LDM / STM were great for memcpy-like things (eg graphics). For other loops the usual technique was to use predicated instructions to avoid pipeline flushes, and loop unrolling. You would have to ask Sophie Wilson or Steve Furber why there is no loop cache; it’s an interesting question. I guess there simply wasn’t the transistor or complexity budget for it.