[hhandoko]

I think the JVM is a really good runtime, and somehow its poor reputation came from Java applet security holes and the verbosity of the Java language.

And no, I don't think you are crazy. I had a really bad experience trying out Spring for the first time (with ant task, etc.). I was pulling my hair out and it turned me off Java for a few years before discovering Play Framework v1 (the original Java version).

How long ago was your experience with the build system? These days you can bootstrap a new project with Gradle, Leiningen, or SBT pretty easily.