> The standard library has clear rules regarding how previously working interfaces should be deprecated, and this changeset is violating those. At no point was documented that relying on the list/dict trait of the existing interface is not part of the interface.

Thanks Gábor for chiming in.

A minor correction, the "dict" trait was documented, and compatibility is retained for that trait.

It's only the "list" trait of the less-commonly-used "Distribution.entry_points" that's a concern here, and I've yet to see an example of it being an actual concern. I've already offered to add compatibility if a compelling use case is presented.

> I don't think the importlib libraries are special enough to warrant exclusion from this rule (as opposed let's say the zoneinfo).

The docs do explicitly call out that the module is provisional. https://docs.python.org/3/library/importlib.metadata.html

Still, I believe it's best for this module to honor the stdlib practices as best as possible, and I believe the indicated change does that.