Java 8 NullPointerException en Collectors.toMap


El Java 8 Collectors.toMap lanza un NullPointerException si uno de los valores es 'null'. No entiendo este comportamiento, los mapas pueden contener punteros nulos como valor sin ningún problema. ¿Hay una buena razón por la que los valores no pueden ser nulos para Collectors.toMap?

También, ¿hay una buena forma de Java 8 de arreglar esto, o debería volver a loop for antiguo?

Un ejemplo de mi problema:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;


class Answer {
    private int id;

    private Boolean answer;

    Answer() {
    }

    Answer(int id, Boolean answer) {
        this.id = id;
        this.answer = answer;
    }

    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public Boolean getAnswer() {
        return answer;
    }

    public void setAnswer(Boolean answer) {
        this.answer = answer;
    }
}

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<Answer> answerList = new ArrayList<>();

        answerList.add(new Answer(1, true));
        answerList.add(new Answer(2, true));
        answerList.add(new Answer(3, null));

        Map<Integer, Boolean> answerMap =
        answerList
                .stream()
                .collect(Collectors.toMap(Answer::getId, Answer::getAnswer));
    }
}

Stacktrace:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
    at java.util.HashMap.merge(HashMap.java:1216)
    at java.util.stream.Collectors.lambda$toMap$168(Collectors.java:1320)
    at java.util.stream.Collectors$$Lambda$5/1528902577.accept(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.stream.ReduceOps$3ReducingSink.accept(ReduceOps.java:169)
    at java.util.ArrayList$ArrayListSpliterator.forEachRemaining(ArrayList.java:1359)
    at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.copyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:512)
    at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.wrapAndCopyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:502)
    at java.util.stream.ReduceOps$ReduceOp.evaluateSequential(ReduceOps.java:708)
    at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.evaluate(AbstractPipeline.java:234)
    at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline.collect(ReferencePipeline.java:499)
    at Main.main(Main.java:48)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:483)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:134)

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