Rather than inventing a completely new peer-to-peer protocol, I would have liked it more if they had worked on smaller improvements of git itself, that would reduce the need for platforms like github.

For example, integrating the bug tracker into the git repo. That would be very useful, since it’s one of the most important reasons people use github at all.

Fossil does what you are asking already as well as projects like git-bug.

What Radicle adds to the mix is a gossip / social layer around git, which is an interesting idea.

I would add to that:

7. Java was easy to learn, compared to languages similar in features, such as C++.

8. Java is easy to debug. No memory corruption, core dumps etc.

9. Tooling: Java IDEs were fantastic! I cannot say the same about C++ IDEs, 20 years later.

I have looked into taking certifications remotely. One of the things that bothers me about it is that you have to give a 360 view of your room to the person who is monitoring you over webcam when you start.

This is on top of having to install their spyware on your computer.

How likely it is for code to be misunderstood depends on the code readability as well, not just on the person who gets it wrong. Personally, I find the style of Linux lists unintuitive. To me it seems a case of sacrificing code readability to workaround limitations of the C language.