kdelibs ebuild says: * The alsa USE flag in this package enables ALSA support * for libkmid, KDE midi library. * For this reason, you have to merge media-libs/alsa-lib * with the midi USE flag enabled, or disable alsa USE flag * for this package. Now, wouldn't it make more sense to change the flag from "alsa" to "midi"?
Yes, but it doesn't make sense to make this change for KDE 3.5 anymore. It would confuse our users without much benefit.