IntelliJ comes with a step by step GUI to set up Spring Boot for you with all kinds of bells and whistles, with the choice between Gradle or Maven for your build chain (last time I checked, maybe they're moving away from Maven at this point). You follow the steps and get going. You can set up a project as fast as the time it takes to Google the exact name of that npm/pypi package.
Sure, you'll want to check your settings before pushing your first code to prod, but the same is very much true for any other "default" deployment.
The same is very much true for other "boring" platforms as well, such as dotnet these days. Getting started is quick and easy.
Java will have a significantly longer setup process if you decide to throw out all the work that's been done for you and implement your own boutique web server and routing system, but that's not a realistic scenario for most companies.
I imagine most of the Java horror stories people recall come from the days where there were no good Java libraries and everyone was reinventing the wheel. Sometimes there are weird dependencies that stop being maintained and rather than fix the problem, companies opt to stick to ancient versions of Java and the JVM, but that's not really a Java problem either, that's a supply chain issue.
I don't understand what the higher barrier to entry is supposed to be like in practice. If you know the basics of backend development in any language, you can get started. Learning to place annotations on top of endpoints is a five minute tutorial process, not dissimilar from how setting up routes in any other language takes reading a page or two to get right.
The only barrier to entry I can think of is that you probably want the full version of IDEA which costs money, though you can use all of its features for free by sticking to the EAP release if you're tight on money.