I would also add IMO the main reason that Java matters: it's easily moddable without the creator's permission. For most of Minecraft's existence, there was zero

I would also add IMO the main reason that Java matters: it's easily moddable without the creator's permission. For most of Minecraft's existence, there was zero official mod support and zero in-game scripting abilities. However, Java is relatively easily decompilable and many modders put in effort to deobfuscate it. The end result is that Minecraft was easily moddable without Mojang needing to officially support them in any way.