Some exclusions configurations might be better configured as init parameter than configs in repo.

Currently we have prefix/suffix exclusions settings in virtual host configurations.
Now I'm doubtful if this configuration is still useful because all the exclusions mapping information should be defined statically in the web.xml first by filter/servlet mappings.
So it is just reflecting the static configuration from web.xml.
Therefore, I think we can move the exclusion mappings into web.xml. Most prefixes and suffixes can be defined in the HstFilter init parameters directly in web.xml. Administrators should be already aware of those when configuring the other filters and servlets. e.g., /ping, /binaries, .vm with servlet mapping.

So, my suggestion is to add init parameters for prefix/suffix exclusions in HstFilter and move all the statically defined exclusions there. Repository configured exclusion configurations can be used for additional checking later when available. (We can keep the current repo configured virtual hosts exclusions mappings, but it's only for some potential dynamic mappings only.)
Then, even though HstFilter cannot construct all the site configuration properly, it can still exclude the /ping url to proceed to the next servlet filter chain.

This will help process requests on statically defined servlets/pages which do not need to be processed by HstFilter, even when HST configuration is not available. For example, repository checking servlet, /ping, can be processed, regardless of hst configuration errors.