New is not always better, but many times it is. We see this for example in programming languages, where newer ones incorporate the best features of their predecessors.

I think there are two things to be wary of: 1) Selecting a new technology just because it's hot, and 2) Refusing to consider new technology because the old stuff "just works." A good engineer looks at the requirements and selects the best tool to solve the problem while weighing the costs and benefits. Sometimes that's microservices. Sometimes it's monoliths. Granted, I don't know anything about the developers or business problems at that company, but to say that Scala microservices are just bad without justification doesn't sit right with me. It's all situational.

If an engineer comes to me and asks to use something like Scala, he'd better know all the upsides AND downsides (e.g. effect and streaming abstractions, ease of long-term maintenance, referential transparency, vs learning curve, hire-ability, 100 different ways of doing things, etc).