I don't buy that wiring up code explicitly in plain old java without the help of an injection framework is as painful as some people seem to think -- and if it really is: I suspect the reason is bad design or that they just haven't given the problem much thought. That happens.

If people need the assistance of a framework to wire up their application, it is probably because the API design sucks ass and there are too many moving parts the programmer is forced to pay attention to. (And when I say API design: all code design is about APIs -- every time you create a class or an interface you are creating an API of some sort). Good APIs hide and abstract. And good implementations take care of things you don't need to see or know.

And I say if, because most of the time, applications are not so complicated that you need help to manage wiring them up. Most of the projects I have worked on the past 15 years can usually be wired up in less than 40-50 lines in a Main.java. I have worked on some projects that needed considerably more, but interestingly, managing that code was never a problem.

Explicit wiring you can read from start to finish beats vague declarative shit that you may be able to figure out if you pay close attention.