> These [wip] labels were there before this vaporware article :)

Only a day or two at most according to archive.org. No WIP labels on 2019-06-21 (the closest snapshot available before the article was published)[1]. WIP labels exist on 2019-06-24 (the closest snapshot to the articles date)[2].

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20190621013937/https://vlang.io/

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20190624052507/https://vlang.io/