>  * links to openssl called md2, md4, d5, etc are not installed by
>    default.

Wouldn't a few shell aliases--"alias md2 'openssl dgst -md2'"  and so
on--work just as well?

>  * i believe it ought to be part of the base system, after all...

OpenSSL was added to cryptosrc in June of 1999.

I suppose having the digest utility and the extended cksum is nice for
people who are prohibited from using the cryptosrc stuff, or (such as you)
who need to run a version of NetBSD from before 1999.  It just seemed a
bit redundant until I understood your reasoning. Cheers.
-- 
Trevor Johnson
http://jpj.net/~trevor/gpgkey.txt