I'm an experienced Java developer, but a bit of a novice when it comes to webapps on Java. I've tried Java EE, Spring, Hibernate, etc and hated all of them with a passion. For writing simple apps it was a mountain of configuration and framework.

I've got to agree that Play is a breath of fresh air. It doesn't hide/automate as much as RoR, which I appreciate. It's really easy to get going with and it's made writing web apps feel quite natural.