> let's say you can lower the amount of intelligence required to actually understand the system
Every system has accidental complexity, so a better language can obviously help achieve this. However, Java does not do this. What Java does is lower the intelligence required to make changes without understanding the system, by having few abstractions and effectively making the programmer work in an intermediate language with added redundancy.
And while this approach allows for cheaper unskilled programmers to be used, they take up more time figuring out what to attempt to change and then crossing their fingers hoping the code will compile. A similar amount could have been spent for an intelligent consultant working in a high level language and serving several such clients, but management would rather feel secure by having someone they control.
> I'm explaining why a healthy corporation
Once it's in the territory of hiring more people instead of better people, you have something that prioritizes control over obtaining results, which is not healthy. Unfortunately, it can indeed still pass for a healthy corporation and live many decades, a source of many modern ills.
Every system has accidental complexity, so a better language can obviously help achieve this. However, Java does not do this. What Java does is lower the intelligence required to make changes without understanding the system, by having few abstractions and effectively making the programmer work in an intermediate language with added redundancy.
And while this approach allows for cheaper unskilled programmers to be used, they take up more time figuring out what to attempt to change and then crossing their fingers hoping the code will compile. A similar amount could have been spent for an intelligent consultant working in a high level language and serving several such clients, but management would rather feel secure by having someone they control.
> I'm explaining why a healthy corporation
Once it's in the territory of hiring more people instead of better people, you have something that prioritizes control over obtaining results, which is not healthy. Unfortunately, it can indeed still pass for a healthy corporation and live many decades, a source of many modern ills.