Clemens, one of the new features that we will release with HDF5 1.13 is the ability to dynamically load VFDs. In other words, you will be able to use VFDs in your application that are not baked into the instance of the HDF5 library you’re running. I believe, all newer VFDs in the pipeline (GPUDirect, Onion, SWMR, etc.) are of that ilk. So the answer is perhaps, “No and yes.” 
No, in the sense, that there is no longer a strict connection between VFDs and a particular library release (aside from VFL API conformance). Yes, in the sense, that you’ll be able to use VFD SWMR with HDF5 1.13. 
Best, G.