I suppose that’s the main problem, I didn’t check the article since the title reeks clickbaity enough. However I wouldn’t share an article if the the title obviously is a clickbait, I’m sure there are bunch of respectable sources about this development.
Even if you cannot connect to internet (normally that shouldn’t be a problem since VM use the internet through host machine), you can still download the said iTunes outside of the VM and install it via shared folder. In the end you don’t need internet to put iPod some music.
Once you installed it, start the VM and plug in your iPod. For VM to see it, on right top there is a … menu, go preferences from there. Switch to Devices & Shares tab. It should see your iPod now, just enable it. Also set a shared directory from below so you can put your music files there before uploading them to your iPod. This is the iTunes version I use: www.filehorse.com/download-itunes-64/35820/