My understanding is that .NET Standard was needed to provide an API for the various different implementations to support. This was normally draw in images like this:

http://gigi.nullneuron.net/gigilabs/wp-content/uploads/2017/...

The updated image is this:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/wp-content/uploads/sit...

Which seems to have removed the implementations (mono/.NET Framework) and implies .NET 5 will be targeted by all platforms directly?

So what is .NET Standard needed for anymore, platforms now target .NET 5 versions instead of .NET Standard versions right?

People will continue to support both framework and core for decades, so library authors that want to support e.g both framework and Core will need to ship libraries targeting .Net standard just like they do today. The question is perhaps whether there will be a new Standard (5 would be a good choice of number) indicating the support needed for .Net 5. Unless there is a competing implementation perhaps there is no need

I mean, .netstandard 2.1 won't be supported by .net framework sooo, yeah, they just pretty much obsoleted .net standard.

(I don't know the answer to this question) wouldn't that just mean that .netframework's last supported version of netstandard is 2, and then you have a netstandard 5 that's supported by .NET 5? I don't feel like that's especially confusing.

actually if you need to support core and .net 4 you probably need to target .net standard 1.6-2 anyway, i hope at least .net 5/6 will support that.

.Net Framework isn’t going away. They said in another post it will be supported as long as Windows is supported but it will only be getting “highly compatible” maintenance updates.