IkiWiki doesn't actually need a C compiler etc. except for CGI (and other wrappers?). As it's perfectly possible to use IkiWiki without the CGI mode, would it be possible to make the Debian package Recommend gcc/libc6-dev/etc., rather than Depending on them?
My approach with the dependencies of the package is to depend on everything that is needed to use ikiwiki for a fairly full-featured wiki (but not things that are only needed to turn on special features like specific plugins). That's why ikiwiki also depends on the FormBuilder, for example.
I feel that making it easier to get going with ikiwiki is preferable to making everyone cherry-pick exactly the packages they need. I realize that this is not optimal for everyone.
I might move these things to recommends once recommends are automatically installed by apt. That will be sorting itself out over the next month or so. --Joey