rsync - Dec 2015 - Status of --inplace and --sparse in rsync or alternative?

Dear rsync users,

this has been asked over and over again: why rsync still doesn't support
--inplace along with --sparse!

There is a workaround to create an empty sparse file and then do --inplace. Then
the file could be updated with --inplace, however the space for blocks became
free will not be restored.

Maybe in meanwhile you have found a solution or free rsync alternative to this
issue? And implementing this in rsync is not needed anymore?

By the way, may be you have scripts that create test files (sparse, partially
written and slightly different) in order to test this feature?

Thanks in advance,
Andrey