Great question, I think it is a good alternative to Java even though it is trying to do too much. Not sure it is happening because it is trying to build on the top of Java or some other reasons. Scala is still good and productive language though!
No the commenter you're replying to, but I've actually looked into Scala a few times and while it has some big criticisms I don't necessarily disagree with, there we're many things I actually liked about the language. I briefly considered picking up for a side project, but ultimately went with something else that provided more relevant features and abstractions.
Sadly, in the real world, it seems that Scala is mostly relegated to the Spark world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1wrWQcqLpo&ab_channel=Java