Example:

    void foo(boolean condition)
    {
        String s = null;
        if (condition)
        {
            s = "foo";
        }
        else {
            System.exit(0);
        }
        System.out.println(s);
    }

This shows the hint for 's = null'. However, when removing the assignment, the result is a compile error on the last line, "variable s might not have been initialized".

The hint shouldn't take the exit() call into account because the Java compiler doesn't either.