"very large J2EE applications"
There are many types of applications that use the
Java EE and J2EE APIs and do not have GUI components.
That said, for applications that do include a GUI, using one or more properties files to contain label names may be a good design technique. It basically depends upon how the GUI is designed. There are other factors as well when considering this technique. In some cases,
when an application is small the extra steps associated with using a properties file
may be viewed as "extra" work. When someone comes from this background, they may inappropriately preserve this perspective. For large applications, it typically is a best practice. Hard-coded label names in
JSP pages is a sign of a questionable design.