I think the best evolution of a programming language is when some features are removed and replaced by a unifying concept which makes the language both smaller and and more expressive. Has that happened in Scala 3?
Scala 2 is a very flexible language and a lot of outsider complaints seem grounded in this flexibility.
Scala 3 is more opinionated in some ways:
"Opinionated: Contextual Abstractions
One underlying core concept of Scala was (and still is to some degree) to provide users with a small set of powerful features that can be combined to great (and sometimes even unforeseen) expressivity. For example, the feature of implicits has been used to model contextual abstraction, to express type-level computation, model type-classes, perform implicit coercions, encode extension methods, and many more. Learning from these use cases, Scala 3 takes a slightly different approach and focuses on intent rather than mechanism. Instead of offering one very powerful feature, Scala 3 offers multiple tailored language features, allowing programmers to directly express their intent
"
I think it is a very practical and grounded focus change.
[1]: https://dotty.epfl.ch/docs/reference/contextual/motivation.h...
[2]: https://dotty.epfl.ch/docs/reference/dropped-features/macros...
The biggest change touching your comment is replacing one feature (implicits) with a couple more tailored features (extension methods, conversions and context parameters). In practice they were very powerful and versatile, but also complicated, finicky and bug-prone. Feels a bit like pointers in that regard.
Fortunately, Scala is one of the best (statically typed) languages in that regard that I ever used.