WASM has been adopted and it has improved massively since 2017 though.
replyYes, but GC is still useless for languages with interior pointers, some features require gimmicks with server configuration, and for most languages we aren't any way closer to -march=wasm and that's all.
replyWe still need to download half Internet for emscripten, plus whatever tools are being used on top. Although it is somewhat simpler for those that build on top of binaren.
Wasm evolution happens in fits and starts. There's a lot of nested chicken-and-egg problems. We first started on Wasm GC less than two years after MVP, and then we didn't have any language targeting it, so we had to bootstrap it. Now, Java, Dart, Kotlin, and Scala all target Wasm GC (and Virgil too :-)). The interior pointer is on people's radar.
replyThe next big feature coming is stack switching. It works best with unboxed continuations, which necessitates a fat pointer representation in the engine. Once the engine supports fat pointers, then interior pointers will be an easier sell. It might take several years to get there, but Wasm evolves slowly and deliberately, and IMO hasn't made any massive fatal design errors yet.