What's funny is that the only languages in the same popularity league as Java are Python and JS/TS (and possibly C and C++ if you want to extend things to more domains) yet I rarely ever hear people saying Java should be more like these languages. It's because many of the people who dislike Java also don't like any of the most popular languages (even those who like, say, Python better don't think Java should be more like Python).

These people may point out that languages become more or less successful not because of the things these people care about but because of other factors. And they're right, but then the question is, shouldn't a smart product team focus more on the things that actually matter more to more people?

Programming languages are tools, and so their value is not intrinsic, but comes from the value of the software they're used to create. Now, some people claim that Java's success is largely the result of it being one of the most hyped languages of the late 90s and early 00s, alongside VB, Delphi, FoxPro, and C#. But this claim doesn't stand up to even the slightest scrutiny.