I saw that article, too. It was a rather pedestrian effort; one might even call it: boring.
The real experimentation with WordPress 3.8 isn’t necessarily the features being added/updated, but rather the development method. This will be the first release to attempt to incorporate code/features that were first developed and matured as “core” Plugins, and then blessed for incorporation into core once deemed mature enough.
If this approach works, it could revolutionize WordPress development cycles, and vastly increase the rate and scope of changes and improvements in core.