For cases where everything you need is really in the datafiles (e.g. a simple disassembler) or where you're providing a user facing API that you want to have match the architecture documentation closely, the tradeoffs are different.
Also for QEMU I tend to value "works the same regardless of target architecture" over "we can do a clever thing for this one case but all the others will be different".
Years ago, I ended up creating my own aarch64 definition, which I use to generate disassemblers, interpreters, and recompilers (dynamic and static) automatically: https://github.com/daeken/SharpRetro/blob/main/Aarch64Genera...
It doesn't have perfect support, but it has served as an incredibly useful resource. I've since generalized it to work for other architectures, and that same repo has definitions for MIPS (specifically the PSX CPU), DMG, and the groundwork for an x86 core. The goal is to be able to define these once, then generate any future targets automatically.