> Modern Spring, as far as I can tell, is still very much driven outside of Java code, it's just migrated from XML to annotations and yaml properties files.

Disagree; there's been a shift to using constructor injection over setter injection, which often obviates the need for Spring-specific lifecycle methods. So it's now much more common to have a service class that, while it may have Spring annotations on its constructor, can also be used in a first-class way in plain old Java, and e.g. doesn't use Spring for unit tests. If you're using Spring at all then part of your application wiring lives outside Java code almost by definition, but it's now more common to express wiring logic as e.g. an annotated Java method rather than encoded into XML. It's not a complete departure, and it may not go as far as you or I would like, but I do think there's been a real cultural shift.

> especially with Gradle (superior to pom files).

It really isn't. Arbitrary unmanaged code in the build definition is great for writing but terrible for maintainability.