Maybe what we should consider is removing the 'Select required
packages (RECOMMENDED)' check box on the 'Resolving Dependencies' page
in the installer. Under what use case is unticking this a sensible
idea?
Since setup doesn't have something like soft dependencies or recommends,
you can sometimes avoid pulling in large parts of the distribution by
skipping one key dependency (like Perl, for instance). That will give
you reduced functionality of course, but if you know what you're doing
it may be what you really want.