I do agree about Java, it strikes me as an especially bad language for teaching because most of the learning has to focus around Java's view of how object orientation should work and various JVM specific things.

It has a pretty steep learning curve to it before you can start writing interesting programs, compared to python or C. C has it's own difficulties of course but a lot of these are things that are actually difficult such as how to deal with memory management rather than fluffy problems about interfaces vs abstract classes.

OTOH there are a lot of jobs out there in Java which is perhaps mainly due to it getting into universities/colleges in the 90s when it had the kool-aid factor.

Not so sure about making all grading project based though. The problem with this is that whilst plagiarism is usually punished severely there is the gray area of "helping your neighbour". This gives a bonus to persuasive types who are good at getting other people to "help" them an awful lot.

Of course the argument could be made that this is good preparation for industry.