Hi, I agree with Johan and others, a splash screen is valuable and needed.
Microsoft applications that run on Windows itself (think Word, Excel, etc), they have a splash screen, Intelllij has a splash screen (it's swing based AFAIK), etc.. If a Microsoft application running on its own operating system needs a splash screen then chances are pretty high that there will be Java apps that'll need a splash screen. Cheers, -- Pedro Duque Vieira