Would you consider the C runtime a virtual machine once you link against libdill or use OpenMP? If not, why not? If so, well, then we just disagree on the term 'virtual machine'. My litmus test would be the presence of some sort of well-defined instruction set.

Most relevant in context of our discussion: The JVM is a (virtual) stack machine with its own instruction set and semantics specified in the Java Virtual Machine Specification. As far as I'm aware, something equivalent does not exist for Go, or as an internal implementation detail at best (some intermediate representation might potentially qualify if you squint at it the right way).