I don't remember the source but on twitter saw that internal documents shows that developers in Ethereum are doing intense testings and hard work without doing it public. They are not only aware of the situation but also are concerned to remain fully in the game as important player. If these things are true is big news and tactic to keep the interest fully in it.
You're probably referring to this article:
Ethereum devs working on secret upgrade to solve its scaling woeshttps://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/11/23/ethereum-cryptocurrency-scaleblockchain/dapps are shit
Don't be so sure about that, dApps are future.