The first time I heard about Valhalla was 2014 (if I remember correctly), so more than a decade ago! However, I'm very happy how Java is engineered. It is really the exception that a technology is so carefully developed. Java is the technology you want for long-term stability.
Project Valhalla is too big to land in just one release. Even if all changes to surface language and the JVM land, it's just the beginning for adding new optimizations.