I disagree with the static vs. dynamic typing part. Modern statically typed languages (like Kotlin, Scala, Rust etc.) are concise and readable. In the case of the Groovy DSL for Gradle it was sometimes hard to get code right or to find a bug. Even IntelliJ struggled at times with this mess of a DSL. So, in my opinion Kotlin is definitely an improvement here!

However, I agree with your second part, the DSL as such. The syntax is arbitrary in many cases and just not easy to remember or to make sense of. It looks like a DSL for the sake of a DSL. Take a look at this example (https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/plugins.html):

    plugins {
        application                                     // by name
        java                                            // by name
        id("java")                                      // by id - recommended
        id("org.jetbrains.kotlin.jvm") version "1.9.0"  // by id - recommended
    }

Why are there two ways to reference a plug-in? Why is the version written without parenthesis? Why is version an infix operator? Why not something as simple and consistent as this:

    plugins {
       plugin(id="org.jetbrains.kotlin.jvm", version="1.9.0")
    }

How does the DSL help here? Is it more readable? Easier to lear or to remember?

Just look at Guice how nice a DSL can look like with pure Java:

    bind(CreditCardProcessor.class)
        .annotatedWith(PayPal.class)
        .to(PayPalCreditCardProcessor.class);

I'd really whish Java had build tools with better developer experience. I whish Mill the best luck!