My alma mater recently switched to Scala for its intro courses, my undergrad thesis mentor really pushed for it and has written an intro textbook using Scala. He's also the reason I used Scala for my senior thesis, which led to me suggesting it at the startup I work for (first hire) and Scala becoming the basis of our backend.

I think the OP really nails the reasons Scala makes sense as an intro language. Students can start with simple concepts and gradually see how these lead to the complicated stuff.