We could define the functionality "text editor" as a requirement, fulfilled by any of the mentioned packages. So you can't have a minimal system without an editor but you're still free to choose your own.
That would great and would probably make everyone "happy" It could even be extended to other packages if needed. I remember seeing something "similar" in debian when I tried it, they call it the virtual packages (from the debian web site: when there are several packages which offer more-or-less the same functionality a virtual package is defined whose name describes that common functionality. These virtual packages only exist logically, not physically. The packages with this particular function will then provide the virtual package. Thus, any other package requiring that function can simply depend on the virtual package without having to specify all possible packages individually). Regards, Gaël