But reading terse code requires a lot more prior knowledge, which you might not have. You learn to recognize patterns in the boilerplate and just glance over it, taking no additional time.
As for prior knowledge, that argument doesn’t fly. A lot of the verboseness of Java could be addressed VERY easily with clear syntax that doesn’t require a lot more prior knowledge. An example is getters and setters, which are very easy to understand in languages that have built-in support for concise syntax but Java has somehow ignored the advantage of concise syntax for 25 years.
Besides, if your argument is that Java doesn’t require “prior knowledge,” I beg to differ. E.g., correct usage of arrays vs. ArrayList.
Arrays vs lists is a thing in all languages, not Java. They just have different names (list, vector, sequence...)
The difference between arrays and ArrayList is simple: an array has a constant size known at the time of allocation.
Kotlin isn't terse.