No, installed lang-packs are as expected (however I still don’t understand preference of substractive install everything, prune unnecessary over additive install minimal, add necessary as to langpacks). On a freshly-installed Ubuntu Disco from official ISO, with Polish lang-pack selected on install:
# aptitude search '~i~nlanguage-'
i language-pack-en - translation updates for language English
i language-pack-en-base - translations for language English
i language-pack-gnome-en - GNOME translation updates for language English
i language-pack-gnome-en-base - GNOME translations for language English
i language-pack-gnome-pl - GNOME translation updates for language Polish
i A language-pack-gnome-pl-base - GNOME translations for language Polish
i language-pack-pl - translation updates for language Polish
i A language-pack-pl-base - translations for language Polish
i A language-selector-common - Language selector for Ubuntu
i A language-selector-gnome - Language selector for Ubuntu
The core of annoyance I mentioned is rather due to:
$> LANG=en_US apt-cache depends ubuntu-desktop
[...]
Recommends: fonts-indic
Recommends: fonts-kacst-one
Recommends: fonts-khmeros-core
Recommends: fonts-lao
Recommends: fonts-lklug-sinhala
Recommends: fonts-noto-cjk
Recommends: fonts-noto-color-emoji
Recommends: fonts-sil-abyssinica
Recommends: fonts-sil-padauk
Recommends: fonts-thai-tlwg
Recommends: fonts-tibetan-machine
[...]
which results in this (due to treating recommends as dependencies, at least during system install):
# aptitude search '~i~nfonts-'
i A fonts-beng - Metapackage to install Bengali and Assamese fonts
i A fonts-beng-extra - TrueType fonts for Bengali language
i A fonts-dejavu-core - Czcionki pochodzÄ…ce z rodziny Vera z dodatkowymi znakami
i A fonts-deva - Meta package to install all Devanagari fonts
i A fonts-deva-extra - Free fonts for Devanagari script
i A fonts-droid-fallback - handheld device font with extensive style and language support (fall
i A fonts-freefont-ttf - Czcionki TrueType: Serif, Sans i Mono z zestawu Freefont
i A fonts-gargi - OpenType Devanagari font
i A fonts-gubbi - Gubbi free font for Kannada script
i A fonts-gujr - Meta package to install all Gujarati fonts
i A fonts-gujr-extra - Free fonts for Gujarati script
i A fonts-guru - Meta package to install all Punjabi fonts
i A fonts-guru-extra - Free fonts for Punjabi language
i fonts-indic - Meta package to install all Indian language fonts
i A fonts-kacst - KACST free TrueType Arabic fonts
i A fonts-kacst-one - TrueType font designed for Arabic language
i A fonts-kalapi - Kalapi Gujarati Unicode font
i A fonts-khmeros-core - KhmerOS Unicode fonts for the Khmer language of Cambodia
i A fonts-knda - Meta package for Kannada fonts
i A fonts-lao - TrueType font for Lao language
i A fonts-liberation - Fonty o tych samych wymiarach jak Times, Arial i Courier
i A fonts-liberation2 - Fonts with the same metrics as Times, Arial and Courier (v2)
i A fonts-lklug-sinhala - Unicode Sinhala font by Lanka Linux User Group
i A fonts-lohit-beng-assamese - Lohit TrueType font for Assamese Language
i A fonts-lohit-beng-bengali - Lohit TrueType font for Bengali Language
i A fonts-lohit-deva - Lohit TrueType font for Devanagari script
i A fonts-lohit-gujr - Lohit TrueType font for Gujarati Language
i A fonts-lohit-guru - Lohit TrueType font for Punjabi Language
i A fonts-lohit-knda - Lohit TrueType font for Kannada Language
i A fonts-lohit-mlym - Lohit TrueType font for Malayalam Language
i A fonts-lohit-orya - Lohit TrueType font for Oriya Language
i A fonts-lohit-taml - Lohit TrueType font for Tamil Language
i A fonts-lohit-taml-classical - Lohit Tamil TrueType fonts for Tamil script
i A fonts-lohit-telu - Lohit TrueType font for Telugu Language
i A fonts-mlym - Meta package to install all Malayalam fonts
i A fonts-nakula - Free Unicode compliant Devanagari font
i A fonts-navilu - Handwriting font for Kannada
i A fonts-noto-cjk - "No Tofu" font families with large Unicode coverage (CJK regular and
i A fonts-noto-color-emoji - color emoji font from Google
i A fonts-noto-mono - "No Tofu" monospaced font family with large Unicode coverage
i A fonts-opensymbol - Font OpenSymbol w formacie TrueType
i A fonts-orya - Meta package to install all Oriya fonts
i A fonts-orya-extra - Free fonts for Oriya script
i A fonts-pagul - Free TrueType font for the Sourashtra language
i A fonts-sahadeva - Free Unicode compliant Devanagari font
i A fonts-samyak-deva - Samyak TrueType font for Devanagari script
i A fonts-samyak-gujr - Samyak TrueType font for Gujarati language
i A fonts-samyak-mlym - Samyak TrueType font for Malayalam language
i A fonts-samyak-taml - Samyak TrueType font for Tamil language
i A fonts-sarai - truetype font for devanagari script
i A fonts-sil-abyssinica - smart Unicode font for Ethiopian and Erythrean scripts (Amharic et a
i A fonts-sil-padauk - Burmese Unicode 6 truetype font with OT and Graphite support
i A fonts-smc - Metapackage for various TrueType fonts for Malayalam Language
i A fonts-smc-anjalioldlipi - AnjaliOldLipi malayalam font
i A fonts-smc-chilanka - Chilanka malayalam font
i A fonts-smc-dyuthi - Dyuthi malayalam font
i A fonts-smc-karumbi - Karumbi malayalam font
i A fonts-smc-keraleeyam - Keraleeyam malayalam font
i A fonts-smc-manjari - Manjari malayalam font
i A fonts-smc-meera - Meera malayalam font
i A fonts-smc-rachana - Rachana malayalam font
i A fonts-smc-raghumalayalamsans - RaghuMalayalamSans malayalam font
i A fonts-smc-suruma - Suruma malayalam font
i A fonts-smc-uroob - Uroob malayalam font
i A fonts-taml - Meta package to install all Tamil fonts
i A fonts-telu - Meta package to install all Telugu fonts
i A fonts-telu-extra - Free fonts for Telugu script
i A fonts-thai-tlwg - Thai fonts maintained by TLWG (metapackage)
i A fonts-tibetan-machine - font for Tibetan, Dzongkha and Ladakhi (OpenType Unicode)
i A fonts-tlwg-garuda - Thai Garuda font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-garuda-ttf - Thai Garuda TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-kinnari - Thai Kinnari font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-kinnari-ttf - Thai Kinnari TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-laksaman - Thai Laksaman font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-laksaman-ttf - Thai Laksaman TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-loma - Thai Loma font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-loma-ttf - Thai Loma TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-mono - Thai TlwgMono font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-mono-ttf - Thai TlwgMono TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-norasi - Thai Norasi font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-norasi-ttf - Thai Norasi TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-purisa - Thai Purisa font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-purisa-ttf - Thai Purisa TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-sawasdee - Thai Sawasdee font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-sawasdee-ttf - Thai Sawasdee TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-typewriter - Thai TlwgTypewriter font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-typewriter-ttf - Thai TlwgTypewriter TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-typist - Thai TlwgTypist font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-typist-ttf - Thai TlwgTypist TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-typo - Thai TlwgTypo font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-typo-ttf - Thai TlwgTypo TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-umpush - Thai Umpush font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-umpush-ttf - Thai Umpush TrueType font
i A fonts-tlwg-waree - Thai Waree font (dependency package)
i A fonts-tlwg-waree-ttf - Thai Waree TrueType font
i A fonts-ubuntu - sans-serif font set from Ubuntu
i A fonts-yrsa-rasa - Open-source, libre fonts for Latin + Gujarati
i A xfonts-base - standard fonts for X
i A xfonts-encodings - Kodowanie czcionek z X.Org
i A xfonts-scalable - scalable fonts for X
i A xfonts-utils - Narzędzia do zarządzania czcionkami w X-ach
Again, fresh install, Polish locale, just added aptitude to filter installed packages.