[douche]

I don't think Java the language is particularly complicated - it has a much simpler core than C++, which it sort of superseded in a lot of areas. People went a little nuts with the XML and ObjectBuilderFactoryFactory nonsense and all of the "enterprise" stuff, but you could create similar levels of insanity in any programming language, if the fad storm hits.

[geodel]

I think a lot of those people, at least initially, were employed by Sun. They came up with verbose Java naming, class libraries and other idioms. Also, they were the one who wrote J2EE specs and such. So it would be reasonable to say that Core Java developers set the tone of Java community at large.