"long deprecated" as in 20 years long; the CF APIs exist mostly for compatibility with Mac OS 9. The only time you really would need to use those functions nowdays is for interfacing with a few system services on Apple platforms like low-level graphics APIs and whatnot.
You're right; I quoted the parent comment even though "deprecated" was not an accurate word choice here, sorry. CF is not deprecated because it is needed on occasion when programming for Apple platforms, but the APIs are largely obsolete.
