I'm all for somebody working on improving dpkg. At the same time, I know this is a limitation that has been known for a long time, so it might not be easy to fix, and will probably need some more time. So why not clarifying the policy, and adding a new characters in the control files of JVMs, since that will make the life of many people easier? (one can argue that creating new packages like java2-runtime-1.3 is more troublesome, so that's a different question).In which case fixing dpkg strikes me as far better than adding yet more byzantine workarounds.
Daniel