Forum Discussion
Latest update on SharePoint 5000 item threshold
I'm a bit skeptical about it (happy to be disproved though) 
The podcast is fully focused on Microsoft Lists, not the "native" SharePoint List app which is present since the beginning. The speaker was introducing the removal of the 5K threshold limitation while talking about the possibility to use the list in Offline mode.
My understanding, as consequence, is that the limitation is still present if we are interacting with the Microsoft list in Online mode.
Speaking about the native/old/legacy SharePoint List, the 5K threshold limitation is directly linked with the backend SQL engine. Because the infrastructure is shared across multiple tenants, the limitation is necessary to prevent overloading and performance issues in the overall architecture.
Let's wait an official reply from MSFT to confirm or disprove my statement