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And the dream of Java everywhere is finally realized ... not by shipping a JRE everywhere, but by using Java-the-language and parts of the JRE as a high-level specification and ahead of time compiling it to other languages. The solution wasn't bytecode VMs but multiple implementations of a high-level language.

Is this a case of worse-is-better? I think so.

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VMs were fine, everyone ships a VM these days (often it's called electron). The problem was distribution, and apparently the fix is to ship a copy of your VM with each app rather than having a system-wide one. I guess that's a worse-is-better answer.

Your point is taken, but the history of Java / the JRE is important here. The JRE turns out to be an excellent (and continuously-improving) virtual machine, but a horrible sandbox.

A huge value prop for early (pre-1.5) Java was sandboxing, but it ended up being clunky, frustrating, and too slow for the browsers / dial-up modems of the era and lost its chance to be the sandbox of choice - leaving the door open for Javascript to win as the world's most widely deployed sandbox.

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