The JVM is a runtime, just like what Go has. It allows for the best observability of any platform (you can literally connect to a prod instance and check e.g. the object allocations) and has stellar performance and stability.
"I am literally losing sleep over this issue since together with a move to more server based applications it seems like it could make it easy for people to do competitive operating systems." [1]
[1] https://www.joyk.com/dig/detail/1672957813119759#gsc.tab=0