I think it is fair to say that one of the biggest reasons that people like Scala more than Java is that while it certainly improves A LOT of things that Java ne

I think it is fair to say that one of the biggest reasons that people like Scala more than Java is that while it certainly improves A LOT of things that Java needed to fix, it also allows a clean break from some legacy Java baggage in terms of platforms. For example, if you are doing a Java web project, most teams go with the Java EE platform simply because that is what is standard and so most of the things around Java in terms of the web are usually somehow in the vein of Java EE in terms of being big, kludgy, slow moving web frameworks. So, even though nicer MVC frameworks like Play exist in Javaland, simply switching to Scala opens your eyes to the opportunities that exist in other frameworks like Lift and Play and scalatra. In the end Scala is a nice mix of improving the language and revealing potentially better platforms at the same time.