Not sure how this makes sense, as there's nothing for a "moment" at WordCamp US.

5.0 is just 4.9.8, which is already released and widely used, plus Gutenberg, which is already released and widely used. People with the classic editor plugin active will see literally no difference than the version number.

There are some things I'm working on for the keynote, but they're about Phase 2 and 3 of Gutenberg, other roadmap items, and some .org stuff. The release will be driven by the software being ready or not, not our arbitrary annual US conference.

"I think there should be consideration in pushing the release date to the beginning of next year." — Jeff, Gary's post did exactly this, including saying alternative dates in January!