ServiceStack hello world example not generating soap proxies

I have finally solved the issue so I am going to post the answer here. ServiceStack is not as broken as it seems although all the examples on the github repo need an update to work with the latest version. So to the point: if you want your classes to correctly produce proxy classes you have to decorate them all not only with the [DataContract] attribute on the class level but also with the [DataMember] on the property level i.e.

[DataContract]
class User
{
    [DataMember]
    public String Name { get; set; }
}

Of course you also need to either specify the namespace on the [DataContract] attribute (for Mono compatibility) or you will have to add a few lines on the AssemblyInfo.cs as described here.

Be warned though! All your DTOs including request types and response types should be on the same namespace! Also if you define only first level classes as request types (like the User example I used) then you will not get a proxy class! Instead all the public members will become method parameters. If you had though, by composition, another public member within User class i.e.

[DataContract]
class User
{
    [DataMember]
    public String Name { get; set; }
    [DataMember]
    public MyClass MyMember { get; set; }
}

then you would get your proxies for the MyClass though not for User. As for response types better read the ServiceStack wiki on SOAP limitations.

Last note: I usually have strong opinions only about flexibility, simplicity, finding alternatives and making things work. I find pointless the discussions that try to support a language over another, an architecture over another, a buzzword/niche technology over a standard approach, using tools that make life easier over hardcoding everything. So I see as such the discussion on the comments above and I wish to continue no more.

I am just glad that a great tool like ServiceStack continues to provide what most users use it for: A variety of alternatives.