I agree. But don't forget that it took years of hard work to build up enough of "Java the platform". Things that help there is having traditional man-power, which costs money, and having a strong community, which takes lobbying/evangelising/advertising. In a way, all those "luminaries" you mention may or may not miss the point individually, but the buzz it creates is necessary to build the community that makes the platform, and that in turn makes the language succeed. Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers...