> Once again, the number of packages that require cl-lib is not an
> important factor to consider when deciding whether to preload it.
A better metrics (but hard to estimate) is how many times a function of cl-lib has been reimplemented (likely in a much simpler way), or how many workarounds are in place because someone wanted to use a cl-lib function in the pre-loaded code, but couldn't, and didn't have the energy to try to convince emacs-devel to preload cl-lib ;-)
I mean, cl-lib is infrastructure code. It's useful and expressive. If it were preloaded, people would find uses for it. Whether that is a good argument for inclusion or not... Yes, to me. But obviously YMMV.
Juanma