I don't disagree, but I will add that most long-lived Spring applications I have worked with were disasters. Figuring out how a Spring application actually work

I don't disagree, but I will add that most long-lived Spring applications I have worked with were disasters. Figuring out how a Spring application actually works (or why it doesn't) can be difficult. Upgrading the framework, or switching to a different one without breakage is often a non-trivial task. The best codebases I have touched, in any language ecosystem, either didn't use a framework, or kept the framework firmly isolated from the other code. If you build your code "inside" a framework, it will eventually become an obstacle to change. Furthermore, the best Java codebases I have seen avoided annotation-driven-development, reflection, classpath scanning, DI frameworks, AOP, etc. Anything that feels at all magical should be handled with great suspicion.