WFLYEJB0406: No EJB found with interface of type when @EJB references non-existent EJB even if CDI is enabled in EAP 7.3 / 7.2

Issue

Error deploying EJB in JBoss EAP 7.3 / 7.2 when using @EJB when a class is annotated with @EJB references a non-existent EJB is packaged in an application. It fails even if CDI is not enabled.

public class PleaseIgnoreMeThanks

{ @EJB private NonExistentEjbExampleLocal nonExistentEjbExample; }

Fails with:

 15:29:37,775 ERROR [org.jboss.msc.service.fail] (MSC service thread 1-3) MSC000001: Failed to start service jboss.deployment.unit."ejb-in-war.war".INSTALL: org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.unit."ejb-in-war.war".INSTALL: WFLYSRV0153: Failed to process phase INSTALL of deployment "ejb-in-war.war" at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:151) at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.startService(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1738) at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.execute(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1700) at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$ControllerTask.run(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1558) at org.jboss.threads.ContextClassLoaderSavingRunnable.run(ContextClassLoaderSavingRunnable.java:35) at org.jboss.threads.EnhancedQueueExecutor.safeRun(EnhancedQueueExecutor.java:1985) at org.jboss.threads.EnhancedQueueExecutor$ThreadBody.doRunTask(EnhancedQueueExecutor.java:1487) at org.jboss.threads.EnhancedQueueExecutor$ThreadBody.run(EnhancedQueueExecutor.java:1364) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748) Caused by: org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitProcessingException: WFLYEJB0406: No EJB found with interface of type 'org.jboss.as.quickstarts.ejbTimer.NonExistentEjbExampleLocal' for binding org.jboss.as.quickstarts.ejbTimer.PleaseIgnoreMeThanks/nonExistentEjbExample