> while the second fakes to be Java at the JVM bytecode level (try javap on a .class generated by kotlinc)
What's wrong with that? All of my gripes with Java, other than the way they did their generics, are at the language level. The bytecode and underlying VM are works of art. Kotlin adds reification to the JVM and adds explicit nullability annotation as a compile time error rather than a warning, which solves my worst annoyances with Java. I'd still use Kotlin if all it did was transpile itself into .java files and call the compiler for me.
It is the Java Virtual Machine for a reason, the language that gets designed in step with the platform is the one that gets day zero goodies, everyone else plays catch up.
Kotlin also decided to become a platform of its own, just like every guest language.
It is also the reason why despite my C rants, if there is no alternative, that is what I use.
I rather use the tools that ship in the box than adding additional layers to configure and debug.
What's wrong with that? All of my gripes with Java, other than the way they did their generics, are at the language level. The bytecode and underlying VM are works of art. Kotlin adds reification to the JVM and adds explicit nullability annotation as a compile time error rather than a warning, which solves my worst annoyances with Java. I'd still use Kotlin if all it did was transpile itself into .java files and call the compiler for me.