i really just want intellij compatability. sbt doesnt offer that. it's incremental compiling is not useful because I do my java dev in intellij. So SBT offered me nothing that maven didnt already have, minus a few weirdo things (like putting the scala version in the name/version of a scala library).

To me, I had to give up scala due to lack of tool support. Maybe if you are used to an emacs/gcc paradigm, but I've gotten quite productive in intellij, as much or more than any C++-styled development. Why have another window with compiler output when you could have it inline with the code and using the typographic features?

I could go either way, but with Java, intellij I have 'develop and run anywhere' going on. Sure there are some super edge causes at the highest performance profiles, but that is always hardware specific, and unless you are developing on the same server class boxes you wont find it.