Well, it's not quite that black and white. I think that as time goes on, you will just have to jump through more and more security/configuration hoops in order to get Applets to work. For example, with this recent chrome change, there is still a way to re-enable applets, it just takes some doing. I wouldn't be surprised if other browsers followed suit.
Well, yes. First of all, you can probably continue to use applets (understanding the caveats above) for the near future. Second, there is the Mobile Module, which allows for running Vision projects applet-free in-browser. Don't worry, we are fully commited to providing an in-browser visualization mechanism for Ignition, it just won't be applets in the long-term.