Scala is not that bad. I'd take it over java any day.
Jokes aside, even Scala proper sees itself as an experimental testing ground more than a complete idea realized. That's why dotty became Scala 3, with a huge amount of backtracking.
It pushed the state of the art across the JVM landscape, but I think it's lost its purpose with Java, Kotlin, and Clojure around.
That's just something that Java, Kotlin, nor Clojure don't offer. And there is significant demand for Scala (and its pupose) in the industy (it just not may be as huge as Java or other more mainstream languages).