I remember the old gcj (GCC/Java native backend) being terrible years ago (as far as performance). I haven't looked at it since.

I agree with a lot of points in this article. The JVM does a lot of nice stuff for you. One of the big, non discussed, advantages of compiling to native would be removing the JVM dependency (and hence the dependency on openjdk or the terrible Oracle JVM license).

As far as LLVM, I'll agree it's a technologically impressive. Still, I feel a clear tech implementation was only partially the motivation, and the other was getting away from GPLv3/FSF licensing. That bothers me a bit. I like the GPLv3, but I feel much of the industry wants to distance itself from the licensing that essentially helped pull Linux into what it is today.