Maybe you'll feel better or more reassured by talking directly to the people who are involved with Rakudo instead of posting your questions on some forum? I presume that they have more intimate knowledge of the answers to your questions.

As for your questions, I see are some questionable ideas behind them. You seem to convey the idea that the refactoring is done already, but as the number of falling tests indicates, it's obviously not.

You use the term "we" as if you were involved, yet your (lack of) knowledge shows that you are not involved with Rakudo. Your use of "we" could also imply that members of this site are involved, but so far, none of those who might be involved have spoken up. I think that the "we" that "should make a production release a priority" will decide on their priorities themselves. If you want to be given a vote in the priorities, I guess you'll have to seek out the persons who make Rakudo happen.

Your speculation on what might have been if "this refactoring" had not happened is moot. I guess you're free to do your own programming with Rakudo-old instead of Rakudo-ng, then you will find out how many more features you can put into Rakudo-old instead of working on Rakudo-ng.

But I'm not sure what the intent of your questions is, unless you're just trolling. Looking on this site for Rakudo or via Google shows only a few posts, and almost no discussion of Rakudo, so maybe you're just in the wrong place. I'm not sure what the right place is, but I guess it would be irc, or maybe one of the mailing lists, or somewhere else.