I think you continue to try to defend your indefensible premise and conclusions.
You chose to write an article entitled "We don’t need Java anymore ... "
You concluded that "Java is out of the multi-platform mobile game" simply because Apple has (once again) made a crazy (or more likely self-interested) unilateral decision about the future of technology.
Why don't we wait and see how this decision actually plays out? And even if Apple's decision is final, "out of the multi-platform mobile game" is extreme and inaccurate, give all the Android-based (and other) mobile operating systems out there:
Android and Android One (formerly Google Nexus)
BharOS (India)
Blackberry Secure
CalyxOS
ColorOS
CopperheadOS
DivestOS
EMUI (Huawei)
/e/,
Amazon Fire OS
Flyme OS (China)
FuntouchOS (Vivo)
GrapheneOS (on Pixel hardware)
HiOS (Hong Kong)
HTC Sense
iQOO UI
Indus OS (India)
LG UX (formerly Optimus UI)
LineageOS
MagicOS
Microsoft Launcher (formerly Arrow Launcher)
MIUI (China)
MyOS (formerly MiFavor, China)
My UI (formerly My UX, Motorola)
Nothing OS
nubia UI
One UI (formerly TouchWiz and Samsung Experience)
Origin OS
OxygenOS
Pixel UI (aka Pixel Launcher)
realmeUI
Red Magic OS
Replicant OS
TCL UI
VOS (Spain and Viet Nam)
XOS (Hong Kong)
Sony Xperia UI (formerly Sony Ericsson Timescape UI)
ZenUI (Asus)
ZUI (Lewnovo)
Wear OS (also known simply as Wear and formerly Android Wear)
The list goes on and on, but you get the point.
But even if Java were "out of the multi-platform mobile game", mobile is a client device domain. Whether they can run Java or not, Apple mobile devices like iPhone and iPad depend on and consume server-based capabilities, which are often built using ... you guessed it: Java.
You then conclude from your premature and mobile-centric conclusion that since Java's portability is "gone", there's really no point in Java anymore, while at the same time admitting that there is an important server side of the world.
"today’s world is dominated by Linux with a few Windows servers still out there. C, Rust, Go, Node.js, Python, PHP and many others easily run on Linux and Windows servers. The portability advantage of Java is long gone." Really?
I don't know how you missed it (clear bias), but Java also runs easily on Linux and Windows servers and has for decades.
And then things just get silly.
"The JRE has always given Java performance disadvantages over languages like C."
It's absurd to even try to compare Java with C. There are so many ways they differ. Memory management comes to mind as just one example. As another, the well-established Java class libraries that are at least as significant in development as the language features and OS support and that simply don't exist in C.
Maybe portability -- your premise and sine qua non -- just isn't that crucial any more.
Portability was nice. I've written client applications that run on Mac and Windows, which was a nice benefit, but well over 90% of the things I've written run on servers in Docker containers. These days, containers provide portability; portability is a much less important consideration for Java and has been for ... almost ten years?
"Java was and is a compromise between runtime performance ... "
But you consider Python, which runs four (4) times slower to be a suitable replacement?
Python's "developer ergonomics"? Like letting developers do basically whatever they want as fast as they can, no matter how ill-advised? Awesome.
And developer ergonomics vs runtime performance. What about stability, reliability, depth, etc. Will Rust or Go even be around in 5 years?
"Other programming languages like Go, JavaScript, Python or Rust have made Java obsolete in many domains."
Which domains, and please support this with something other than opinion. Go and Rust are still struggling to find a foothold compared with Java. Python and JavaScript are a joke for anything serious, let alone mission critical.
"Java’s struggle to ... modernize the runtime environment looks like an unsolvable challenge."
Maybe that's because Java's runtime performance simply isn't the problem you claim (without any evidence) that it is. In fact, Java consistently ranks just below C and C++ in performance tests.
"The massive toolchain that surrounds Java adds to the challenges."
I use Java every day. My "massive toolchain" includes my IDE (IntelliJ IDEA), the JDK, and Maven.
Maybe it's simply too early to declare Java dead. But even if it were, replacing it with "toy" languages like JavaScript is nonsensical.
