@dibl - sorry, i really forget it
We have changed the apt setting a bit - the first plan was to roll out these changes only for new installations but after some testing and a lengthy IRC session we was conviced that these settings make sense even in older installations. So what is changed:
* we install recommends by default - the meaning and quality of recommend packages has changed in the last ten years a lot and to the better - they will be mostly used as soft dependencies aka packages one want to have in the installation - the second important thing is that it ease transitions and package split a lot if new packages will be installed because they are recommend. This is especialy true for Desktop Environments that are in heavy change like KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon, Mate.
* we don't hide autoremovals any longer - so one can autoremove crufty packages with apt autoremove after carefully checking these or mark them as manually installed if one like to have them staying on the system - no body is forced to do autoremovals, a simple apt purge will work to and is a good option when in doubt.
Downsides/Pitfalls: On older systems the autoremoval functionality might be used with care, some flags was not set in the past - solution: apt-mark $package. This is self repairing over time, updated and new installed packages will have the needed flag automagically.
Important: This described behaviour is only for autoremovals - so if apt say it want to remove packages it is the same behaviour as before - transitions in progress and so on.
Kernel Remover: Most of the obsoleted Kernel will go with autoremovals - that should work fine most of the time, apt handle these obsoleted kernel images and headers like any other package.
@dibl: if i wrote to much crap - or it hurt to much because of used words/grammar - feel free to edit