I don't understand, at all. If two programs are semantically equivalent then traditional deobfuscation techniques like symbolic execution, constant propagation

I don't understand, at all. If two programs are semantically equivalent then traditional deobfuscation techniques like symbolic execution, constant propagation + folding, dead code removal, etc. should take you pretty far. Throw in some peephole and pattern based rules specifically targeting this obfuscator and you're good to go. The main link is pretty shit so I may be missing something important. I plan to read the other links provided when I have time, but feel free to help me out by explaining how wrong I am, if that's the case.