In this case, "soon" means 2030, which is the planned "retirement" date. Musk suggests to do it even sooner, in two year's time (that would be 2027).

That's not a huge difference.

It’s a massive difference to SpaceX who were awarded the de-orbit contract and would need a massive amount of extra funding to suddenly bring that project’s timeline forward three years.

Also a large difference to all of NASA’s international partners who might lose out on astronaut slots, scientists with experiments that won’t be ran, dozens of contractor companies supporting ISS, etc.