Well, you could use the same argument against any feature at all! Besides, I can point at zillions of Java applications that are not written by huge mystery corporations with legions of slaving programmers. There's no point holding back on improving a language just because you think some people might refuse to use your improvement.
I applaud your optimism and suspect we see things for ourselves in a similar light. However, every improvement of this sort added to a language is like a feature added to a product. It is not "free:" It increases the surface area of the language, requiring programmers to learn more to use it. Every "improvement" must be analyzed in light to whether the benefits outweigh the costs. My conjecture is that the costs will outweigh the benefits for the kilo-jillions of shops that are "mystery corporations with slaving programmers," as you put it.
As an aside, I think that the complexity of the language is already getting out of hand. Although features like this can be found in "little" languages like Javascript, they were in from the beginning and form part of the language's substrate. Libraries, frameworks, everything a Javascript user touches will make use of anonymous functions with lexical scope. More complex features are built on these features. This matters because when a programmer learns how a function works in Javascript, he learns how everything works.
Whereas when adding the same feature to Java, it's just being bolted on the side. So when a programmer learns how these new so-called closures work, all he learns is about a feature that isn't being used as a component of anything else, it's just a feature. We add complexity but get very little in return, much less than from the same feature in a language like Javascript.
I am not trying to get into a flame-fest over Java, but I do think that there comes a time when any product matures, and "improvements" should be viewed with extreme caution because the product has reached a point of greatly diminishing returns. I suggest that Java is in that place.
Undoubtedly, there will be maintenance projects that will develop this attitude, the places I've worked usually took a while to move to a new version, but once they moved they had no problem integrating the new features.
Essentially, this will replace the horrible callback syntax we have and have been using for a while. The new features will be integrated slowly, but they will be used.
