Could this mean that extensions like RealURL and CoolURI woudl be obsolete?

An article on TYPO3.org titled State of TYPO3 URL handling indicates that URL handling will be integrated in the TYPO3 Core at some point for the v9 branch.

There are obstacles in implementing this solution including things regarding TYPO3's multi-language and multi-site capabilities.

This could be an exciting development if it's true. It seems like it will be.