> the level of transparency to Java's ambitions

They are fairly transparent if you ask me. Here are a few examples[1][2], there are more to be found on the openjdk page

Additionally, scala already has some of the features proposed for the inclusion in C# in the future.

[1] http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/0

[2] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/panama/