I'm not sure I understand the justification. If the patch serves a logical purpose, and distutils isn't deprecated in the current development line, then I would suggest we apply the patch. If we don't fix the behavior today, then the library will be in the same boat 5 years hence. The argument that many still rely on 2.7 could apply to any patch applied to 3.x. Furthermore, having better debug capability in even one version could provide packagers with a target in which to troubleshoot.

I'd prefer the patch be accepted or rejected on merits.