If I implement what’s described in the Delta Lake paper, will I be able to query and update arbitrary Delta Lake tables as populated by Databricks in 2025?

(Would be genuinely excited if the answer is yes.)

Not sure (probably not). But it's definitely much easier to immediately understand IMO.

OK, but at least from my perspective, the point of OTF’s is to allow ongoing interoperability between query and update engines.

A “standard” getting semi-monthly updates via random Databricks-affiliated GitHub accounts doesn’t really fit that bill.

Look at something like this:

https://github.com/delta-io/delta/blob/master/PROTOCOL.md#wr...

Ouch.