Well, I think lots of people feel smarter with a better programming language. For instance, my ability to come up with better solutions is better when programming with Clojure than with PHP. It's like that saying, that perspective is worth 80 IQ points.

(Of course, I don't put any stock in IQ; it's just a saying.)

So maybe a more charitable view is that these people (who think Java is too constraining) wish to be smarter than than they currently are. And anyway, who wouldn't get a little frustrated with all the childproofing features in their everyday tools?