Any app reaching complexity of what’s being done on Java will look the same, no matter what platform do you choose. I haven’t yet seen large nodejs deployments with MLOCs and hundreds of developers, but I’m pretty sure it can easily become much bigger mess - the tools and the libraries are immature, there’s lack of enterprise SDLC patterns etc, which creates a lot of obstacles. Spring is becoming too enterprisey these days, that’s true, but it’s still fit for use in modern architectures - only if you understand how to utilize all of its capabilities.
nodejs isn't a replacement for fat backends for sure, but it's working really well for a frontend-facing light backend where frontend developers can add endpoints as the need arises, such as for autocomplete functionality, and where first-party support for asset pipeline tools is desired. The Spring experience isn't bad for newbies creating "REST" microservice spaghetti to have something to show at the end of their agile day, but it gets seriously in your way if you're a seasoned dev and have a solid understanding of what you want to achieve in terms of network-exposed interfaces and integration with other apps.
I‘m seasoned dev with 20 years of Java programming experience, I see no problems using Spring and I don’t see why anyone with similar experience would have any. It’s sometimes not obvious, how some things work, but it’s open source and the code is quite good to analyze, extend or replace.
