Modern Java is quite good these days, no? Type inference, fibers, text blocks, records...
I agree if we were talking about Java 8 (and I have no doubt a lot of people are still unfortunately using that), but I wouldn't mind a modern Java setup as much as I would have in the past.
Pretty funny you mention Java 8 as a negative example, I remember it being widely heralded as a step in the right direction that was a long time coming and a breath of fresh air.
I think they just mean that newer versions are further steps in that direction, not that Java 8 was a step the wrong way.
Yup. Java 1.8 is humongous leap to the right direction.
The JVM and its ecosystem are the best thing about the Java platform. Not the language, i dont even use it anymore and i am nearly 100% JVM based. But even then its still not horrible. it's just that there are better options like Scala.