Thanks Mika; we may be on different wavelengths?  I never use GNU "fdisk" but
only GNU "cfdisk" and no problems.  There is also GNU "parted"?  And shared
libparted?  The only program I ever use is GNU cfdisk, I assume dynamic-linked
to libparted?  Yes?  No?

I do not understand Debian's bug 46188 response (today) from Aurélien GÉRÔME. 
He claims: "util-linux fdisk is more mature than gnu-fdisk whose upstream
development has stopped from quite some time."  Even if true, Debian is supposed
to enable choice.

But is it true?
http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/features.shtml
"Latest Stable Release
1.8.8 was released on 2007-08-10"
(only 1 year vs. 6 years old for util-linux?)

Aurélien could resolve the artificial conflict here, with or without GNU
collaboration.  Thanks for contacting GNU, we'll see what they say.