OperationContextImpl provides impls of ServiceTarget and ServiceBuilder to OSHs. It is valid for those OSHs to pass those (particularly the ServiceTarget) out to other code, e.g. DUPs, which will then use them as a kind of "subsystem scoped" target. As opposed, say, to a deployment scoped target that can be obtained from the DeploymentUnitService.

If this is done though, the target and builders continue to hold a ref to the state held by the OperationContext that created them. That state is no longer relevant once the management op is done and retaining a ref to it is a kind of memory leak. Any link back to the OC should be cleared from these objects when the operation is complete.