Exactly.
In some cases you can see that the use of a Java Applet is a shortcut (VPN for instance) but in others, there's no other way around because browsers aren't allowed to do some stuff (like USB, which I'm perfectly fine with). Saying it isn't so is because you don't have enough data to take an informed decision... or simply because you're trolling.
I've developed Java Applets before, and believe me, when confronted with a problem, a Java Applet is surely the last resource any serious JEE developer will take. I mean, Java Applets, apart of the security stuff, are hard to maintain, to test and provide a horrible UX compared to a nice web frontpage. I myself find any sort of plug-in disgusting, be it Flash, ActiveX, Silverlight or Java.
OTOH, I can see that Mozilla, in the end, is pushing its own strategy with HTML5 and that the people making the decisions aren't exposed to this scenarios where the browser simply isn't capable/allowed. But if you're going to block something, provide a solution to the problems Java Applets try to solve too.