For me most important benefit is running without pre-installed VM. Not particularly important for backend, but huge win for user-space tools.
18 karma · joined July 5, 2012
There's a also a problem that most powerful Scala techniques are there "by accident" [1] and unlikely will (or should) appear in official guides.
Also I disagree that "Scala for impatient" is good book for start. It make me feel Scala is dump of random unrelated features, it's very easy to disappoint.
However, despite all above I think Scala is definitely worth to invest some time. It made all other learning curves (for languages, techniques, concepts) more flatten.
[1] https://meta.plasm.us/posts/2015/07/11/roll-your-own-scala/