Yes, their feelings on Monero has been no secret, which is why I find it odd all these laser eyes are clutching pearls.
They've also been hinting at Monero atomic swaps for more than a year.
Can't blame them if they do. It's a superior privacy tool.
Discussion
I’m not sure it’s more private than bitcoin and whether the trade-offs are beneficial to becoming money.
They’re 2 different goals
A public blockchain can't be more private than Monero.
Recievers and amounts don't even appear on Monero's blockchain. They are completely hidden. Senders and transaction IP is obduscated. There is no transaction graph connecting senders and recievers on Monero. And amount analysis isn't possible either.
Monero transaction:
~6% chance Alice sent $[?] to [?]
Bitcoin transaction:
Alice sent $X to Bob
With coinjoin you are obfuscating everything, but all range of connections and amounts are visible. You can be deobfuscated with future data. There is a whole industry around it: blockchain analysis.
You are right though that they are specializing for 2 different goals. Bitcoin is trying to be sound money. Monero is trying to be digital cash. You can save with Bitcoin, and spend with Monero. Doing this virtually eliminates any worries about saving Monero.
Chain analysis is pretty much voodoo. Even the companies whose core business is chain analysis admit this.
As it’s design Bitcoins public ledger and transactions can be audited at any given time, this is a feature.
And I’m no sure where you get IP addresses for people transacting BTC
Whether it is voodoo or not doesn't prevent government from using it to associate you with transactions.
https://www.wired.com/story/bitcoin-fog-roman-sterlingov-blockchain-analysis/
https://www.torekeland.com/roman-sterlingov/
It also doesn't prevent any counter party you transact with from snooping.
https://github.com/jlopp/physical-bitcoin-attacks/blob/master/README.md
Why even risk all these things?
Your IP address can be gathered by using remote nodes. And the consequences of this are much more severe than on Monero.