This is almost 7 years old, but with Inkscape 1.0 a lot of these proposals are now part of its UI. The full mockup lower down the page [1] is essentially what Inkscape looks like for me when I open it up.
I was part of that project and I agree with you, I don't know how that came to HN, TBH. That same "design consultancy" (we're not that but I understand the confusion) decided instead to focus on creating Penpot (https://penpot.app)
The README says: NOTE This was an experimentation project from ΠWEEK. Is not active anymore. All redesign proposal can be sent to Inkscape Blueprints and will be reviewed by the Inkscape team.
Hi, rethinkscape member here. This is superold news! We just wanted to bring back the nice landing for that experiment now we have launched Penpot. Wow, that escalated quickly (into HN). After that project, we approached Inkscape team and shared our work. They were truly enthusiastic about this but they had a ton of work still as top priority towards 1.0. That's fine, we use inkscape as one our everyday SVG tools at Kaleidos and Penpot.
[1]: https://rethinkscape.netlify.app/