Without the GNU-stack section the linker reverts to its backwards-compatible default which is to make the stack executable.
Oh! That's interesting, and actually makes sense. Well, I guess we've found a reason for the existence of the .note.GNU-stack section, and stripping it is not as free a win today as it was 20 years ago. :) Thanks for the investigation and the patch. Making those strips less greedy is clearly the correct solution. -- Laurent
