Type erasure enables Java applications that use generics to maintain binary compatibility with Java libraries and applications that were created before generics

Generics were introduced in Java 1.5, so presumably the statement

"applications that were created before generics"

is referring to Java 1.4? Given that Java 1.4 entered its End Of Life around 2006 and was officially End Of Life'd around 2008. Why is type erasure still being performed in Java 7, etc...

Has the statement now become self referential i.e. Type erasure enables Java applications that use generics to maintain binary compatibility with Java libraries and applications that were created with Java versions that perform Type Erasure.

Meaning therefore that there will never be a version of Java that doesn't perform Type Erasure.