I think the trouble with teaching mostly Java-only courses early on in CS curricula is that it makes it difficult to catch the subtle middle ground where OO act

I think the trouble with teaching mostly Java-only courses early on in CS curricula is that it makes it difficult to catch the subtle middle ground where OO actually makes code more readable/maintainable instead of more bloated. Granted, a lot of that comes from experience in OO languages, but I think using C or another language helps people see that middle ground a lot easier. It helps make it more obvious where OO would help and where it would just be needless obfuscation.