Java certainly isn't shiny and new like Swift or Kotlin. But it's not any less attractive than C, C++, or Visual Basic which are all listed ahead of it in the a

Java certainly isn't shiny and new like Swift or Kotlin. But it's not any less attractive than C, C++, or Visual Basic which are all listed ahead of it in the article. So I disagree with the premise. Yes, Java's popularity is shrinking but not at a concerning rate. If I had to name one missing language feature that imperils Java it would be the lack of compiler-checked null-safety. After using both Swift and Kotlin this is a feature I dearly miss in Java.