cryptsetup does map partitions by UUID, if that's how you specify them in /etc/crypttab. In the case of bug #509952, clearly you didn't do this, so of course cryptsetup wasn't mapping by UUID.
An entirely separate question is whether the parent device *has* a UUID. If you're not using LUKS, I think the answer is going to be 'no'.
cryptsetup does map partitions by UUID, if that's how you specify them in /etc/crypttab. In the case of bug #509952, clearly you didn't do this, so of course cryptsetup wasn't mapping by UUID.
An entirely separate question is whether the parent device *has* a UUID. If you're not using LUKS, I think the answer is going to be 'no'.