The other way to see this is that a powerful runtime allows to write more straight-forward code.
Allocation in the heap allows for much more powerful programming constructs as n object owns it’s own memory layout. Back in 1990 the cost of pointer indirection was virtually free. The need for stack allocation came up only somewhat recently. And the value object model Oracle has come up is infinitely more powerful than what comparable languages are offering.
The trend in performance is allocating more jobs to the runtime. In HPC, this is already the de-facto standard.
Having to break less due to regenerative breaking in electric cars doesn’t make advancements in breaking technology obsolete - surely, java will get to value types sooner or later that will decrease the amount of allocations, but most programs do make extensive use of the GC fundamentally, so both advancements will improve the language.
These two things might not be unrelated; a state-of-the art runtime might be necessary to compensate for weaknesses of the language.
> and that is still true today (e.g. GC-wise no other language is even close to Java’s, and basically every research is against that)
For instance, a language which generates less garbage on the heap (instead of boxing nearly everything) would have less need for an advanced GC.