The post raises some good points, but I nonetheless think that C++ is a better language for having std::variant. It can result in some very clear, expressive code, despite the boilerplate and dabbling with more advanced language features that it necessitates.
Indeed, from the article: "In spite of all of this, I’ll be busy encouraging my coworkers to use variant if anybody needs me. Sum types are such a useful concept that they’re worth the pain[...]"
I don't disagree that it's _been happening_, i.e. some of its effects have happened already and continue to do so, but I wouldn't want to say "done and dusted, economy's fine" until it's properly happened and we're into 2021.
I'm not sure we can come to any real conclusions about the economic impacts of it until we get well into 2021, even if many businesses have been preparing for it.