Intellij itself is switching to using sbt directly to compile scala. If I understand the goals listed there correctly they intend to use sbt’s incremental compilation to provide error highlighting too (and possibly drop their own parser/typer)
- Output of the sbt build should be parsed or delivered to the IDE via server protocol to give error highlighting within the editor and project views (SCL-11079)
I’m from userland, I use sbt and intellij and double check intellij’s squigglies with sbt/scalac when in doubt but I am not a statistically representative sample 
Also I dream of a world where the compilation errors are improved in SBT right now, then fixed once and for all in scalac but I am aware of what limited resources mean.
edit
a few further references about the use of SBT within intellij just hot of the press IntelliJ IDEA Scala plugin 2017.2: SBT 1.0, improved SBT Shell, Play 2.6 and better implicits management | The IntelliJ Scala Plugin Blog