[wbl]

Interpreters don't need to have dynamic typing: for example the JVM and the interpreters before JIT. Even with dynamic types there are some spectacularly clever tricks people use: Smalltalk VMs are where they were invented and practiced a bunch.

In crypto code branching is exactly what you don't want to do to guarantee security. Branches go both ways if an attacker can force a mispeculate and microarchitectural state is not rolled back because it can't be.