I think within the code base of a single self contained application, you can just start with public variables. It's not difficult to refactor and add indirection later.
But if you are sharing a jar which is going to be is used by another team, then better expose via getters and setters so that there is some wiggle room to alter the implementation. Also, in such case it would have to be done with interface in the first place so public fields are out.
There is a distinction here to be made between just any Java public class and something that is module-public (something that you would expect outside teams to use)
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I think within the code base of a single self contained application, you can just start with public variables. It's not difficult to refactor and add indirection later.
But if you are sharing a jar which is going to be is used by another team, then better expose via getters and setters so that there is some wiggle room to alter the implementation. Also, in such case it would have to be done with interface in the first place so public fields are out.
There is a distinction here to be made between just any Java public class and something that is module-public (something that you would expect outside teams to use)