Missing Query vs. Exists Query - null_value support

I'm curious why the missing query was deprecated in ES 2.2.

The documentation states that you should "Use exists query inside a must_not clause instead." However, the exists query doesn't support the null_value parameter (from the missing query), meaning that you can't control how null_value's are handled (whether they should be included or excluded from the result).

Are there use-cases where missing can't be completely replaced by exists, or are there ways to mimic the behavior of the null_value parameter when using exists?