Because Java, alongside .NET, are the heirs of Xerox PARC tooling and development school.

As a Java dev now, this comment does not make sense. Doing Java for 4 years now and I only appreciate how much it can do (working on MMO which is written in Java both backend and fronted).

"Just because it isn't useful for me specifically, then nobody else should use it."

Assuming you do get cross-compilation sorted out once and get your libraries compiled to JNI JARs, it's easier to get running than the dependency hell associated with shipping C++ stuff around.

It's a real mystery. Some popular conspiracy theories:

* Scala projects the Haskell-on-the-JVM image too much to scare off the practically-minded. It has no ORCL or GOOG behind it (its cousin F# has had official MSFT support for a decade at least).

* Kotlin is strongly associated with the frontend. Just try to search for a backend Kotlin role in the Bay Area to see.

* Java 17-21 is catching up with Kotlin fast enough to make many people doubt the upskilling effort.

Kotlin only matters on Android, because Google says so, and even them had to accept Kotlin without Maven ecosystem is meaningless, increasingly moving into modern Java, thus Android updates to Java 11, followed by Java 17.

I dislike Java, but some poor coders are writing code in MUMPS for their poor customers. Java is not a particularly good language, but it's not the worst thing out there.

There are a lot of relatively inexpensive, relatively fungible engineers, especially offshore. (not really but this is what idiot middle managers and VPs will tell you).

Lots if not most of the biggest and most profitable businesses in the world are built primarily using Java. (this is true).

I agree. Every single time I a new tool that’s written in Java, I sigh. Just… why? I understand old legacy enterprise stuff, but new things??

I’ve tried lots of different languages, and for building actual large applications I just prefer Java. The language has changed a lot in the last ten years to be more agile and enjoyable to use.