See comments in bash_completion next to the definition of the function. Due to its deprecated status it is not likely to be changed any more, especially in ways that would change its behavior (e.g. the "type -P" case).
The function is not used by bash-completion itself at all, and 3rd party completions would be better off migrated to be loaded on demand -- then they don't need to use this function either (or they can change to "type" at will if they want to support older bash-completion versions). More details for 3rd party packages about how to install completions is in bash-completion's README. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org