it's disingenuous to hand-wave away any differences between "some people are doing this with it and they don't mind babysitting their code between releases" and "you should take this seriously because it's and ready for deployment like any other mature piece of software you might expect".
I agree there's a big difference between the two levels you describe. It's so big there's room for at least one more stage in between, which is what I believe is Rakudo Star's niche.
When the Rakudo developers meet the commitments they've made and demonstrate that they can continue to meet those commitments, I'll take them seriously.
As you know, I still take them seriously, as you once did. I believe Patrick's request for comments about such commitments, and concrete steps designed to meet them, are appropriate, sincere, serious and have already been productive.