The question was about greenfield projects, not all projects in existence. In a greenfield project, you can set your own standards, be judicious about what libraries you use, etc.
I'm not framing it as a question one only asks if they happen to have the power to actually decide to use it; obviously a curious student might want to know why large successful companies continue to use the JVM even for new projects. I'm saying that the answer can be given from the perspective of someone who does have that power, and that the question is really "if I can choose a language, why would I choose Java." That doesn't imply that the person asking actually has that power, but it prevents silly answers that are addressed by "don't do that."
I'm not framing it as a question one only asks if they happen to have the power to actually decide to use it; obviously a curious student might want to know why large successful companies continue to use the JVM even for new projects. I'm saying that the answer can be given from the perspective of someone who does have that power, and that the question is really "if I can choose a language, why would I choose Java." That doesn't imply that the person asking actually has that power, but it prevents silly answers that are addressed by "don't do that."