I agree that Java has a lot of silly boilerplate, but I don't see that as a huge hurdle. Most people will use an IDE that populates it for you. Keep in mind this is for a complete beginner.
Dependency management with either Java or Python is PITA IMO, but my idea would be to avoid dependencies during this initial phase of learning the basics.
Python seems to be the goto for intro programming courses at a lot of universities today. I assume that bootcamps are more focused on Javascript because front-end wbdev is probably more marketable than Python in isolation.
Yeah honestly pure Java is a real joy. Other people's Java, and in particular anything involving dependencies is where Java falls apart and becomes ridiculously overly verbose. Too bad people don't write Java like I did in college I guess lol? I really don't get what motivates people to write 30 observer classes, etc. Good Java can be so clean...
Dependency management with either Java or Python is PITA IMO, but my idea would be to avoid dependencies during this initial phase of learning the basics.