Startup time matters too. There's no reason you should have 2003 start times in a 2023 application.

A java application should be able to start in seconds. An inability to do so is the surefire litmus test for pulling in too many dependencies.

I've tried and worked with most of what the Spring ecosystem has on offer, and I'm not particularly impressed. It seems to codify all the practices that makes for mediocre software.