How to get Maven to run war:exploded but not war:war

The solution is quite simple. You need to override the default execution of the war plugin to disable it and add your own execution (for exploded):

<pluginManagement>
    <plugins>
            <plugin><!-- don't pack the war  -->
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>default-war</id>
                        <phase>none</phase>
                    </execution>
                    <execution>
                        <id>war-exploded</id>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>exploded</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
    </plugins>
</pluginManagement>