You can build a WAR file for deploying by going Exporting the project as a
WAR. Should be in File->Export or right click on the project and select
Export
True enough. The problem with that is the whole concept of a manual step
in what should, in my opinion, be an automated process. I see that as the
equivalent in Windows of having the development environment build all
object files and stop just short of building the executable, which has to
be done manually from a menu.
JAR files of any kind (WAR, EAR, etc.) should be build artifacts, not
manual selections.