1) those layers of abstractions are often the result of some smart guy in the team, reading some design patterns book and then desperately applying them wheneve

1) those layers of abstractions are often the result of some smart guy in the team, reading some design patterns book and then desperately applying them whenever feeling the chance. Typical building his little cathedral story. Its pretty horrible, but by no mean java-specific. It can be achieved in any object-oriented language, and to some extent also in others.