kde is the package which administrators who want to try KDE should generally install.What purpose is served by the existence of kde (the metapackage)?
kde doesn't depend on the full KDE (for example, it doesn't depend on KDevelop).Is there a reason why not to clarify its meaning by renaming it as 'kde-full'
I think it's late to suggest it. For the development packages, that is kdewebdev, see #401862, which is solved in experimental. kde will recommend kdewebdev. Maybe it should be downgraded further to a suggestion. The tex issue will be resolved with okular replacing kdvi, which should happen during squeeze's development.and having a 'kde-slim' package which includes the entire kde minus development, games, texlive and other heavyweights?
That leaves games, but I don't think it's worth creating a new metapackage for that.