That's what I thought, too, but re-reading the articles, they were using a patched kvmtool:
https://lwn.net/Articles/644675/So this is exactly what runv's lkvm backend is doing (except kvmtool isn't patched anymore). And Intel Clear Containers do not exist anymore(many broken links on clear linux's website subsist, though), since they moved to Kata as well:
https://01.org/blogs/2017/kata-containers-next-evolution-of-...