I agree about painful learning curve for Scala. Problem I think in very divergent community and in different approaches for a every single problem (unlike for example Python or Go): OOP vs FP, Typesafe vs Typelevel, scalaz vs cats, Cake Pattern vs sanity.
There's a also a problem that most powerful Scala techniques are there "by accident" [1] and unlikely will (or should) appear in official guides.
Also I disagree that "Scala for impatient" is good book for start. It make me feel Scala is dump of random unrelated features, it's very easy to disappoint.
However, despite all above I think Scala is definitely worth to invest some time. It made all other learning curves (for languages, techniques, concepts) more flatten.
If I remember right, they redesigned Akka logo and website twice last year and almost same for Play. It seems someone in (ex-)Typesafe is strongly encouraged about rebrandings.