A "runtime" is not a virtual machine anymore than the standard c library is a virtual machine... it's clear what virtual machine means in this context: an abstraction layer between machine code and program code that translates one to the other at runtime.
Yes, but here they don't. A VM is a non-physical machine that executes instructions. Nothing more, nothing less. And yes, this means that even a library might be considered a VM. I don't see why people get so wound up about that.
Because half of your point is nonsensical without that stretch of the meaning in regards to VMs.
Go programs do not run on a VM. They run on a specific CPU architecture, and specific OS. You would need an actual VM to run the same program on something different. That is unlike Java which on its own is a VM to run programs on.
I would argue the other half of your point is nonsensical in the same matter. You just conflated two different definitions of exceptions, which are similar, and have intersections, but not identical.
