Absolutely, but he does (for the cryptography example) mention that future chips will do better in this regard.
Why would he do this, and not mention the cryptography engine present in this very SoC?
What's most likely is he managed to overlook this SoC has this hardware.
>I want to buy a board for what it can do now
This board clearly isn't for you.
>kernel updates that are not guaranteed.
Having kernel patches already sent upstream for review[0] is a much better situation than potentially having nothing.
Then buy something else.
My VF2 boards (one 8 GB and one 4 GB) were very clearly sold as "Early Bird" and "Super Early Bird", respectively, and Jeff's will have been too.
They are for early adopters and for developers to use to fill in the missing software support. It is not practically possible to do this without a board in your hands.
It is NOT for the average user right now. In 3 or 6 months it will be.