I don't know what the right answer is here, but I find it intriguing that this approach is in a way the opposite of what Python ended up doing with the 2/3 split.
Like many things that we love about Python, I believe it came about as a reaction to Perl. Because I'm pretty sure Perl 6 has been in development since I began learning Ruby, in 2005. That means the entire time I've been a Ruby developer, this project has been in development. I'm honestly surprised that it's being released at all.