Judging from the diagrams, the loop buffer is using the same storage as the micro-op queue that's there anyway. If that is accurate (and it does seem plausible)

Judging from the diagrams, the loop buffer is using the same storage as the micro-op queue that's there anyway. If that is accurate (and it does seem plausible), then the area cost is just some additional control logic. I suspect the most expensive part is detecting a loop in the first place, but that's probably quite small compared to the size of the queue.