Sebastian is essentialy correct in his analysis of the history and
current status wrt the LaTeX kernel and required:

> I think its more fundamental than that, as discussed as far back as
> 1993 - hyperref does not fit into the model of LaTeX properly, and
> rides roigh-shod over LaTeX innards when it feels like it. To add it
> to "required" would imply that the kernel team felt that it reliably
> collaborated with kernel packages, which would simply be untrue.
>
> To do it right, bits of LaTeX need a rewrite, taking into account the
> needs of hyperref. This is what Context has done, of course,
> integrating the stuff into the kernel.
>

What we have not done yet, due to `stafff shortages', is any detailed
work on building the requirements of multi-use documents (via hyperef
or any other pakage) into the new experimental work that I am sure you
are all right now busily testing.


chris