Simplifying conventions a bit here couldn’t hurt is another way of looking at it. Maybe instead of the long src directories it could be simplified to app and tests top level directories for example.

For a simple HelloWorld or a PoC development a flat list of .java files would work, but once you go past that (20+ files or so) a standardized directory structure is an important element of managing the complexity.

And using the JAVA ecosystem standard makes it easier for fellow/future developers to continue the support and expansion

you don't have to buck conventions, as much as allowing for alternate ones, is all.

There's room for a reasonable alternative that chops the directory structures into more reasonable nesting, for instance.

What is the proposed alternative exactly? I like main vs test. I like isolating java files from other languages or templates. I like the src directory bucketing sources from other root project build files and output artifacts. I have a ton of wishes for java improvements but this is functionally not an issue in day to day work.

True, however since already the Visual Cafe, JBuilder and Visual Age days, Java IDEs have tried to provide a Smalltalk like experience, given where the community was coming from, so the concept of a virtual image mapped into the file system has always been present.

As such, code browsers always made this quite easy.

The fact that Eclipse provides a Smalltalk like code browser isn't an accident, rather its Visual Age roots.

It is only a problem when one makes the point to navigate through the source, outside Java tooling.