Scala is a dying language, anyone boarding that ship is making a mistake. Anyhow, I prefer Java supplemented with powerful features Scala doesn't have, such as type-safe SQL.

> If you want type safe SQL in particular, you can pry JOOQ out of my cold dead hands.

Jooq isn't bad, but it's not SQL, it's Java trying to be SQL. Manifold lets you write type-safe, native _SQL_ of any complexity directly in your code.

The vast majority of people that use it aren't, but that's a feature :)

Manifold isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. It's architecture is modularized so that you can select the parts you want à la carte as separate dependencies in your build.

> At the very least, I prefer not to have any surprises in my codebase

But manifold surprises are pleasant ones :) As with any library or framework, it's a design decision: does it provide enough productivity and opportunities to offset its presence in your project? It's not a panacea.