Martin sums up perfectly the challenges facing Scala adoption in the wider community: ‘extremists’ at each end of the OO-FP divide can be prompt to come out with their ‘pitch fork’s.
I’ve always perceived Martin as a software anthropologist who’d examine long and hard where learning opportunities might be, then come up with applications where most people would get the most benefits. There is no useful reason to be dogmatic about OO vs. FP. If someone doesn’t see the benefits of either then they should just pick what works for them, or avoid Scala. Denying the merits of a programming language fulfils no useful purpose, whatever someone can be productive with is the right tool for them.