Initially, yes. But Scala has evolved beyond the JVM, with Scala.js [1] being rock-solid, and Scala Native [2] under development. Neither are truly hampered by the initial JVM roots of Scala.
> Scala gives you a better horse
Weird analogy ;)
[1] https://www.scala-js.org/ [2] https://scala-native.org/en/stable/
I'm reminded of a talk ex-Scala guy had, where he rhetorically asked "Scala, if Java cut their nose... Gods what are you doing?!". Stuff like compareTo being an 32 bit int, rather than just 8 bit, because compatibility, and so forth. I doubt they got rid of those nitpicks.
Although what pushed me of it was order dependent Traits and implicits everywhere. Plus Arcane type signatures.
I haven't kept up with Scala since 2, but if it works for you, it works for you.
> Weird analogy
- Will get you to your destination, intact
- Will shit everywhere (GC)
- Knows few useful tricks (Type system)
- Not made of metal (not low level)