Surely the steps in the right directions were taken since long time ago to ensure sustainable future for BTCitcoin (thanks to developers). We never get to see the whole picture as most works are done in back-end. Regarding making alliances with other up-and-coming, innovative technologies my answer is a big YES as this would drastically help into bringing in a whole new market for BTCitcoin and make it even more known and popular while making it even stronger to last longer.
Surely we should be thankful to the developers who take right steps at right time. Your thinking is very positive that most of us not seen the full picture of Bitcoin. There are so many core developers from all over the world, who are continuously updating the system with the latest requirements and maintain it up to the mark. Huge efforts of developers and too much interest of investors shows that Bitcoin has a good present and should be best in the future. Future of Bitcoin is too much brighter.