Take it easy! Coindesk was always a place what was not a friend of Java-based blockchain solutions. I remember when Coindesk has completely ignored Nxt, even on times when it has had a market capitalization of 50-80 million $. Coindesk authors are pro C(++).
Why on Earth would a website be prejudiced against a, er, programming language?
Because back then, POS was considered to be hog-wash, and totally against the spirit of a viable crypto currency.
NXT was being rubbished because it was java too, but perhaps you have made a good point and that they are just rubbishing java as an excuse?
The truth is that anyone could write a c++ client if they wished anyway, and i believe that has already indeed been done with several alternative NXT clients.