Indeed, the phrasing “modern desktop environments” was somewhat general, since the behavior does depend on exactly how a given desktop environment scans the file system.
However, shifting the blame for this issue onto KDE Plasma is a weak argument, since different desktop environments are free to implement directory scanning in their own way. The fact that one desktop environment “handles” Debian’s specific structure does not make other environments faulty. KDE Plasma likely expects unique items in the wallpaper directory, rather than a tangled web of multiple layers of symbolic links pointing to the same resource. The user interacts with the system interface, not the package architecture. When the same image appears twice in the desktop background selection menu, it spoils the user experience (UX). The responsibility for maintaining a clean dataset lies with the package maintainers who compile this list, not with each graphical environment that attempts to display it. Shouldn’t you reconsider the structure of `desktop-base` instead of relying on end-user environments to handle deduplication? I apologize for any inconsistencies in the text, as I’m using a translation tool.
