The good news is that at least the simulation part has improved massively over the last few years. For synthesizable system verilog you have https://www.veripool.org/wiki/verilator, which allows you to compile to C++ and then you can implement any verification methodology you like from scratch in C++ :). I did that for parts of an in-house POWER based processor and it isn't actually as bad as it sounds. You also have the option to use DPI-C and interface with a C++ test-driver that way. We managed to do extensive Hardware and Software (full hardware abstraction layer + instruction compiler + FPGA + ASIC) co-simulation for an accelerator we build, although using proprietary tools because we had Xilinx IP and VHDL involved. Verilator is also used as a backend for Chisel.
For vhdl there is https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl.