I've recently started working with rust and wasm - I love the esoteric nature of it - I also hate the surface area that it's creating on the client.

The paper is indeed correct - we did this 20 years ago - same architecture except with JVM instructions.

I'm entirely neutral on the merits of this tech supercycle - there are some great things being built, there are also old potholes getting uncovered that will end with some lessons re-learned.