> E.g. why am I forced to have, for example, lpd in my machine when I  
> _never_ use it?

Because there isn't a neat way to drop it  from base and still make it
easy for users to add it back.  That, at least, is my undertstanding
of the purpose of syspkgs.  I commend the fact that it has been done
for UUCP, even though I use UUCP daily.

There was a time when I could install a workable version of NetBSD in
40 Megs of hard disk on a PC. That is not something to sneer at, even
(especially?) in this day of infinite hardware bloat.

In fact, I'd like to join those working on syspkg specifically to help
reduce the NetBSD base footprint because I believe that NetBSD is the
only OS that lends itself to minimalist usage (please let me know what
help is required).

++L