Loading `InterpolationTerm` does not per se load the `ElInterpolationTerm` class. Only if we go into the if branch and try to instantiate a new  `ElInterpolationTerm` the class will be loaded.

I've tried it out on AS by omitting the EL dependencies. You can try yourself by omitting the EL dependencies from the test classpath via the Surefire plug-in. This should cause only those tests to fail which actually use EL expressions.