[gentoo-user] Is gnome becoming obligatory?

[Mick]

I've seen gnome-base/gnome-common pulled in on more than one systems, all of 
which have USE="-gnome" set:

 # emerge -uaNDvt world

These are the packages that would be merged, in reverse order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[nomerge       ] kde-apps/kdebase-meta-17.08.3:5::gentoo
[nomerge       ]  kde-plasma/plasma-meta-5.10.5:5::gentoo  USE="bluetooth 
display-manager handbook pam pulseaudio sddm wallpapers -grub -gtk -
networkmanager -plymouth -sdk"
[nomerge       ]   kde-plasma/powerdevil-5.10.5:5::gentoo  USE="consolekit 
handbook wireless -debug"
[nomerge       ]    kde-frameworks/solid-5.37.0:5/5.37::gentoo  USE="nls -
debug -doc {-test}"
[ebuild     U  ]     sys-fs/udisks-2.7.4:2::gentoo [2.1.8:2::gentoo] USE="acl 
gptfdisk introspection nls%* -cryptsetup -debug (-elogind) -lvm% (-selinux) -
systemd" 1,257 KiB
[ebuild  N     ]      sys-libs/libblockdev-2.14::gentoo  USE="crypt -bcache -
dmraid -doc -kbd -lvm {-test}" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_5 -python3_4 -
python3_6" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_5 -python3_4 -python3_6" 268 KiB
[ebuild  N     ]       dev-libs/volume_key-0.3.9::gentoo  USE="{-test}" 
PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_5 -python3_4 -python3_6" 
PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_5 -python3_4 -python3_6" 435 KiB
[ebuild  N     ]      gnome-base/gnome-common-3.18.0-r1:3::gentoo  
USE="autoconf-archive" 153 KiB
[nomerge       ] sys-libs/libblockdev-2.14::gentoo  USE="crypt -bcache -dmraid 
-doc -kbd -lvm {-test}" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_5 -python3_4 -python3_6" 
PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_5 -python3_4 -python3_6"
[ebuild  N     ]  dev-libs/libbytesize-1.2::gentoo  USE="-doc {-test}" 
PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_5 -python2_7 -python3_4 -python3_6" 
PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_5 -python3_4 -python3_6" 69 KiB

Total: 5 packages (1 upgrade, 4 new), Size of downloads: 2,180 KiB

All systems are on profile:  default/linux/amd64/17.0/desktop/plasma

Why is gnome-base/gnome-common needed?

-- 
Regards,
Mick