Why is Java's type inference so weak?

Question

Say, I have a method:

public static  Collection addToCollection(T element, Collection collection) {
    collection.add(element);
          


        

Answer 1

Whats harm in doing this?

Integer i = 42;
List emptyList = Collections.emptyList();
Collection result = addToCollection(i, emptyList);

In java 8 it will be taken care.