Comment # 10 on bug 1074253 from Stefan Dirsch

Hard require mkfontdir/mkfontscale would be a step back. Recommends must be
enough. It's our default to install also recommended packages.

Again:

"Then I suggest to figure out, why zypper no longer installs the Recommends on
your system. It may bite you in the future more and more often. Hint: Check for
Recommends in /etc/zypp/zypp(er).conf."