I don't call it "register-impoverished", that's too negative a term.
I'd
prefer to call it "extraneous register-free" :)
I've always loved the simplicity of the 6502, 6809, HP2100... expressly
because there was just one or two accumulators, and just one or two more
registers for indexing or scratch. Early RISC ;) I always loathed the more
complex x86 type architectures that sported lots more (comparatively)
registers. They felt very "calculator-like" to me.
Jay