are bpy.context.object and bpy.context.active_object STILL the same? So far I haven't found a clear distinction between bpy.context.object and bpy.context.active_object, are they currently interchangeable? If so, might they be different in the future?

edit: Blender continues to evolve - are these still interchangeable? Are they identical? Is there any plan or thought given to give them separate meanings being thought about for the future?
They do appear to be interchangeable at the moment. I have seen no evidence that developers plan to change this. For sake of consistency I prefer to use .active_object for everything that requires the active object.