Except for pass-by-value and pass-by-reference. Java's model of always passing a reference value makes the mental model around references so much simpler.

It makes the model simpler, but I found this pretty cumbersome. I wanted to write a method returning two values (Boolean), so I had to return an array of Booleans. Out parameter seem easier for me (and more concise)

I thought scala was java done right ;)

Well - both, kind of :)

Take a look at this presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/omervk/scala-for-c-developers

It draws some parallels between C# and Scala.