He then went on to acknowledge that the core Bitcoin code contains a lot of slop, which he speculated could cause potential logistical problems for Bitcoin in the future."
The future isn't set in stone. Hard work will be necessary for Bitcoin to maintain its lead position. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Most code is riddled with slop, other alts are often worse than Bitcoin in this regard as well. Yes, more work needs to be done, but we don't need any mistakes to happen with a 7+ billion dollar market cap. We have enough problems as is with sociopaths like Mark K., regulators wanting to control Bitcoin, and traditional banks with their negative PR campaign to start making mistakes in the protocol because users are anxious to see changes.
Let the alts test some of the new features and once vetted Bitcoin can roll that code into the core.
It is very unlikely that any alt will surpass Bitcoin at this stage in the game.