Accessing PublishingExtensions RepositoryHandler through its property rather than its method removes runtime dependencies from generated POM file

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This situation came up when I was attempting to change the repository that a maven publication is published to after it had been configured by a plugin to a default location

build.gradle

apply plugin: 'maven-publish'
apply plugin: 'java'
group 'buildteam.test'
version '1.0.1'
// This is simulating the plugin
publishing {
    publications {
        javaCode ( MavenPublication ) {
            from components.java
        }
     }
    repositories {
        mavenLocal()
    }
}

// Changing it inside of the build.gradle away from default
publishing.repositories {
    mavenLocal()
}

/* **COMMENTED OUT BLOCK**
publishing{
    repositories {
        mavenLocal()
    }
}
*/

dependencies {
    compile group: 'org.jmock', name: 'jmock', version: '2.6.0'
}

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

When ran with the commented out block in place and the publishing.repositories block commented out the code behaves as expected and generates

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd" xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.
0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>buildteam.test</groupId>
  <artifactId>companyArtifactName</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.jmock</groupId>
      <artifactId>jmock</artifactId>
      <version>2.6.0</version>
      <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>

However when ran as listed it generates

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd" xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.
0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>buildteam.test</groupId>
  <artifactId>pason-ui</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.1</version>
</project>

I am posting to check if this is intended behavior or a new/already discovered bug.

Thanks,
Jamie