Clean up wrt #5335 (not fix)

src/main/java/tools/jackson/databind/ValueDeserializer.java

@@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ public Object getAbsentValue(DeserializationContext ctxt) {
     /**********************************************************************
      */
 
-/**
+    /**
      * Method called to determine value to be used for "empty" values
      * (most commonly when deserializing from empty JSON Strings).
      * Usually this is same as {@link #getNullValue} (which in turn

src/main/java/tools/jackson/databind/deser/jdk/AtomicReferenceDeserializer.java

@@ -31,28 +31,12 @@ public AtomicReferenceDeserializer withResolved(TypeDeserializer typeDeser, Valu
     @Override
     public AtomicReference<Object> getNullValue(DeserializationContext ctxt) {
         // 07-May-2019, tatu: [databind#2303], needed for nested ReferenceTypes
-        return new AtomicReference<Object>(_valueDeserializer.getNullValue(ctxt));
-    }
-
-    @Override
-    public Object getEmptyValue(DeserializationContext ctxt) {
-        // 07-May-2019, tatu: I _think_ this needs to align with "null value" and
-        //    not necessarily with empty value of contents? (used to just do "absent"
-        //    so either way this seems to me like an improvement)
-        return getNullValue(ctxt);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Let's actually NOT coerce missing Creator parameters into empty value.
-     */
-    @Override
-    public Object getAbsentValue(DeserializationContext ctxt) {
-        return null;
+        return new AtomicReference<>(_valueDeserializer.getNullValue(ctxt));
     }
 
     @Override
     public AtomicReference<Object> referenceValue(Object contents) {
-        return new AtomicReference<Object>(contents);
+        return new AtomicReference<>(contents);
     }
 
     @Override

src/main/java/tools/jackson/databind/deser/std/ReferenceTypeDeserializer.java

@@ -115,10 +115,13 @@ public Object getEmptyValue(DeserializationContext ctxt) {
 
     // 02-Sep-2021, tatu: Related to [databind#3214] we may want to add this... but
     //    with 2.13.0 so close will not yet do that, but wait for 2.14
-//    @Override
-//    public Object getAbsentValue(DeserializationContext ctxt) {
-//        return null;
-//    }
+    // 13-Oct-2025, tatu: Time to do it for 3.0.1 (ought to have done for 3.0.0 but missed it)
+    @Override
+    public Object getAbsentValue(DeserializationContext ctxt) {
+        // 21-Sep-2022, tatu: [databind#3601] Let's make absent become `null`,
+        //   NOT "null value" (Empty)
+        return null;
+    }
 
     public abstract T referenceValue(Object contents);
 

src/main/java/tools/jackson/databind/ext/jdk8/Jdk8OptionalDeserializer.java

@@ -34,24 +34,6 @@ public Optional<?> getNullValue(DeserializationContext ctxt) {
         return Optional.ofNullable(_valueDeserializer.getNullValue(ctxt));
     }
 
-    @Override
-    public Object getEmptyValue(DeserializationContext ctxt) {
-        // 07-May-2019, tatu: I _think_ this needs to align with "null value" and
-        //    not necessarily with empty value of contents? (used to just do "absent"
-        //    so either way this seems to me like an improvement)
-        return getNullValue(ctxt);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Let's actually NOT coerce missing Creator parameters into empty value.
-     */
-    @Override
-    public Object getAbsentValue(DeserializationContext ctxt) {
-        // 21-Sep-2022, tatu: [databind#3601] Let's make absent become `null`,
-        //   NOT "null value" (Empty)
-        return null;
-    }
-
     @Override
     public Optional<?> referenceValue(Object contents) {
         return Optional.ofNullable(contents);