Scala has deep roots in the Ivory Towers of Academia, its not shocking they think they know better than their users what the problems with the language are and didn't do any kind of real product management to figure out the actual problems before embarking on a rebuild.

It wouldn't be a problem, but the issue is a one of expectations.

Was Scala supposed to be a research language (focus on novel features) or an industrial language (focus on stability and maintainability)? I think Oderski wanted the first but many people wished for the second.