Removing xserver-xorg-input-synaptics on my system would remove a bunch of useful things including gnome, libreoffice, etc
The dependency to xserver-xorg-input-all if it is not now needed could be removed to avoid this.
As a temporary workaround I deleted the file /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-synaptics.conf
It seems to do the trick.
After restart I have gnome panel showing options for touchpad and tap-to-click works fine.