The details here about the funding situation - in particular terminating a raft of projects and a licensing change specifically to sell AGPL exemptions - doesn't paint a rosy picture.

It's weird to see "Needless to say, this is far from an ideal situation: we sent up distress flares loud and clear at the beginning of last year’s holiday update" followed by this further cutting down, a realisation of that distress, and in the next paragraph see "distinctly optimistic".

I expect to see a bunch of fundraising posts in the near future, and with things like the IRC bridges getting closed down (presumably for cost), it's hard to be bullish on Matrix.