Comment 6 for bug 822828

I would argue that the texlive-latex-extra-doc package should be only a *suggested* package when installing texlive-latex-extra. Because the default policy is to install packages that are marked as *recommended*, it means that a (currently) 317 MB package will be downloaded any time one wants to install texlive-latex-extra, unless you explicitly specify you don't want recommended packages.

But requiring the use of the --no-install-recommends flag with apt-get is problematic because it also prevents any other recommended software from being installed. It is better to allow the user to "opt-in" to the large download, than require the user to have to "opt-out" of it.