Sure, I mean Scala started in 2004 and Java in 1995. So it should be expected that Scala has some head start. Scala was more innovative for its time as it was a younger and more flexible language. But given the fact that Java is more stable and widely used, I think it's still remarkable to see all these recent changes. Anyways, I agree with you that Scala (and Kotlin) certainly have their share of advantages!