Russ Allbery writes ("Re: no{thing} build profiles"):
> Minimal installation size is *not* the only goal here. Ease of use and
> lack of surprise is important to. Personally, I'd much rather have
> numerous unused packages installed than to have something break in an
> opaque way when I try to use it, even if I'm unlikely to need to use it.
I would note that none of this is an argument against demoting this
dependency to a Recommends.
Ian.