> How about using the packages in the "inner circle of dependency hell" as
> a starting reference implementation? That basically means that the
> package set
> is enough to get /bin/sh functional in a chroot and nothing more.

This is exactly what I was thinking, everything up to a shell with
perhaps one daemon (like ssh) to serve as an example for any more
complicated packaging features (although just to /bin/sh is a clearer
delineation and perhaps less political goal).
Jason