This is patently false. Getting to hello world is as simple as knowing how to add a dependency, just like any other language and requires 0 xml. See javalin [0], or spark [1].
Thanks for sharing these links! My point was that I didn't know how to do this, not knowing these frameworks existed and unable to find them on my own search. You solved that issue for me. If these frameworks get more attention, maybe it'll be solved for more people!