I think it means Mr. Ichbiah was being at best overoptimistic about the profession’s maturity, and most likely extremely politic. After all, in the very same article he has to explain why the approach preferred by men like Hoare and Wirth (small, customizably extensible languages) was such a bad idea.
It’s also possible he’s wrong, that that is not the right order after all.
There’s also the possibility that he was, to be impolitic about it, slightly delusional. Elsewhere I’ve read that he predicted that within the decade only Ada and LISP would be in widespread use. Since I haven’t seen the quote, and he comes across as entirely reasonable in this interview – even predicting that newer technologies would eventually replace Ada – I’d like to think that was a joke.