I believe that the class file does retain the specific generic instance at the use-site, it's just that there isn't much type-specific optimization that's appli

I believe that the class file does retain the specific generic instance at the use-site, it's just that there isn't much type-specific optimization that's applicable to reference types beyond what HotSpot does anyway (which is stronger than what would be available by the generic instance type information). It's possible that Java AOT compilers could make use of this information.