If anything, that's an indictment of the Spring framework, which you certainly don't need to write Java. For instance, there are over 500,000 Java apps in Google Play market, and I'm pretty confident most of them don't use Spring.
Now if you wanted to criticize Spring and cargo-cult enterprise Java development, I think that's reasonable.
Good observation, I've read several posts which complain about factories and proxies. With Grails (which can be all Java no Groovy if you want), Zk, GWT, etc. I can do powerful web apps. No EJB and no Spring needed.
Yes but I don't recall having to do anything directly with it so the reference is good for me. If I need logging I expect it to work not worry that some bean config file isn't set up right. If the Grails developers found Spring helped them, cool, as long as I don't have to deal with it.
Now if you wanted to criticize Spring and cargo-cult enterprise Java development, I think that's reasonable.