Well, really?

So you say that if you have split the code into single instructions, decoded everything so far that each instruction can be placed at any memory location in any random order and know enough about the code to convert it into any code doing the same, it is more than one simple step to write a VM?

I didn't say that this is a VM, only that this trick is used in VM protectors. Perhaps you can explain me how VM protectors work if they don't use this "trick".