i noticed that in pango-1.2.1 configure is passed optional debug support while pango-1.2.2 and 1.2.3 do not ... maybe update the G2CONF line to read this: G2CONF="${G2CONF} --without-qt `use_enable debug`"
there are three levels of debugging available (none, minimum, yes) so i dont think use_enable debug fully captures the functionality (it would just add minimum debugging support). there's no doc in the ChangeLog about removing the debug use flag, however (and i'm extrapolating here) that it has something to do with portage including debugging functionality itself now (guess as i said). (OT) more correctly, qt should really be selected via USE="qt".
The debug support was from times when pango was still under development, usually we don't enable optional debug support -not even by USE flag- for stable releases unless there's a good reason (is there one here ?). We assume people who want it/need it are probably knowledgable enough themselves to enable it in the ebuild. The G2CONF line you give doesn't work in my experience. The qt disabling thing has to do with that backend being unmaintained/-finished afaicr, there is no reason to enable buggy features even if it's by USE flag.
