I think real-time control is going to become more important, especially if ROS wants to compete with Boston Dynamics. Clearly we’re behind them at the moment.
It’s not so much that real-time control isn’t possible with ROS1 – but it hasn’t been explored much yet. We’ve actually had pretty good success, if we can keep network traffic low. (Example)
Velocity control of the joints, versus position control, is also important. When using velocity control, small message delays are less significant.
I think some of the robot manufacturers are catching on to this stuff. UR was way ahead of the game, and HEBI arms can also accept a stream of joint commands.