I have been using https://j2html.com/ for some projects and after some initial doubt and discomfort I have to say it is a really nice way to do it.

All the IDE tools just work: refactoring, auto-completion, usage search, debugging.

Also I get really nice exceptions and can express stuff about templates in their types.

When combined with Classes = Templates, static functions = macros and using implementation inheritance (the one permissible case haha) it covers all the usual corners of nice templating engines.

Sure the syntax and indentation is a little wonky, but for me it pays off in so many more convenient ways that it is easily worth the tradeoff.

Is this the best implementation of the concept? Probably not, but it is good.