Re: Hmm, If I was working at a secret agency
"... they did not design based on the assumption of bad actors abusing this."
I agree. For illustration, have a look at this Intel manual page from 1986, explaining why CPU-enforced sandboxing was introduced: the focus was entirely on detecting, and confining the damage of, "bugs". I think this is understandable because malware wasn't such an issue back then, but it has been obvious for a long time now that Protected Mode is a critical security defence, not just a stability feature, and there is no excuse for holes in its sandboxes in recent CPUs.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
