See my earlier comment:

> Note that the EL implementation is still added as JAR to the HV module, since depending on the EL 3 module didn't work out.

> More specifically, when depending on the module, HV reached out the the ExpressionFactory which in turn uses the TCCL to load the actual implementation class. But via the TCCL only the still existing EL 2 API/impl are visible which I think are implicitely added to web deployments. Therefore the EL 3 impl can't be loaded via the TCCL. I think we really can rely on the EL 3 impl only when the EL 2 dependencies have been removed.

So it was required at least when I created the PR, but it might be not required anymore with the latest changes on master. I'll test.