In my opinion net-misc/chrony's "readline" USE flag should be renamed to "libedit" because chrony may optionally depend on dev-libs/libedit but not on sys-libs/readline. On my system I'd like to get rid of the dev-libs/libedit package, and I have "*/* -libedit" in package.use, but unfortunately I still have dev-libs/libedit installed because its ebuild currently ignores the "libedit" USE flag. Chrony's configure script actually includes a --disable-readline option, but it seems it means readline-like functionality as opposed to readline proper.
I don't intend on doing this, sorry. readline should be treated like a feature flag, as we do for imagemagick and graphicsmagick. That way, you can clearly express an intent to have readline-like functionality but express a preference for the editline provider.
Also, if you really do feel that you want no libedit at any cost, that's what masking the package is for. You'll then see what needs it.
