There are two features here, let's be clear about what we're removing.

* extending sys.path with static (perhaps relative) directories
* arbitrary code execution (following "import " statements)

Only Barry wants to remove the first one, and the rest of us will push back hard enough to keep him in check ;)

Basically everyone wants to remove the second one, but we can't do that until there is replacement functionality for its legitimate use cases.

Looking at Anthony's list (and making some assumptions about what the titles mean), I'd propose that only encodings require a way to register them from an installed package. And maybe this is as simple as making "encodings" a namespace package?

For the others:

* backport, demo - no idea what these look like
* coverage, debugging, demo, except-hook - application/user responsibility, not a package's
* monkey-patching - kill it with fire
* import-hook, module-layout - easy enough to work around

(For those who are confused about the last, using a package __init__.py is how to modify these *when your package is actually loaded* and not on startup.)