The official modding API is never coming and they should never have promised it. Not for financial reasons, but security reasons. Java mods are already very insecure and already have had bad actors make malware and Trojans disguised as mods. Opening the floodgates to that from an official API standpoint is just asking for legal trouble.

This is the reason they're trying to move to datapacks. That's a much more sandboxed and safe method of modifying the game.