Before then java wasn't so bad.
List doSth(Object a, Object b) { ... }Scala pretends to solve this problem by "layering" code. Complex types are for libraries and users should use libraries. But IMO it never worked. Problems arising, "users" have to debug into library code and they have to deal with full-featured types anyway.
My only real wish in regard to Java 1.4 was that I would be able to implicitly cast Object to anything (like I can in Objective C). That would help to reduce type clutter a lot.
From my perspective that's the large difference between Java and Scala. In Java, complexity leaks into the use-site (especially with Generics), in Scala it's possible to shield the user from that complexity.