You can use Java explicit configurations without Spring boot magic. Using XML to configure an app is so backward to me and prone to error, not to mention debugging. When I see xml config file in 2018 I want to poke my eye out.
I don't like XML either but I can clearly see the point in being explicit.
Unless you're working alone or unless everybody knows exactly how the whole system works, being explicit will save you a lot of time.
If you're still insisting, I suggest you to clone random mid-size spring project from github and do some non-trivial change (like implement automatic tracking of all changes or soft-deletes)
