xubuntu-desktop installs by default many non-latin fonts, which is great for asian or arabic users but clutters my (western-user) interface to pick a font in the fonts list.

So I did remove many fonts I never use:

sudo apt-get remove --purge fonts-beng fonts-beng-extra fonts-deva fonts-deva-extra fonts-gargi fonts-gubbi fonts-gujr fonts-gujr-extra fonts-guru fonts-guru-extra fonts-indic fonts-kalapi

  fonts-khmeros-core fonts-knda fonts-lao fonts-lklug-sinhala fonts-lohit-beng-assamese fonts-lohit-beng-bengali fonts-lohit-deva fonts-lohit-gujr fonts-lohit-guru

  fonts-lohit-knda fonts-lohit-mlym fonts-lohit-orya fonts-lohit-taml fonts-lohit-taml-classical fonts-lohit-telu fonts-mlym fonts-nakula fonts-navilu 

  fonts-orya fonts-orya-extra fonts-pagul fonts-sahadeva fonts-samyak-deva fonts-samyak-gujr fonts-samyak-mlym

  fonts-samyak-taml fonts-sarai fonts-sil-abyssinica fonts-sil-padauk fonts-smc fonts-smc-anjalioldlipi fonts-smc-chilanka fonts-smc-dyuthi fonts-smc-gayathri

  fonts-smc-karumbi fonts-smc-keraleeyam fonts-smc-manjari fonts-smc-meera fonts-smc-rachana fonts-smc-raghumalayalamsans fonts-smc-suruma fonts-smc-uroob fonts-taml

  fonts-telu fonts-telu-extra fonts-thai-tlwg fonts-tibetan-machine fonts-tlwg-garuda fonts-tlwg-garuda-ttf fonts-tlwg-kinnari fonts-tlwg-kinnari-ttf fonts-tlwg-laksaman

  fonts-tlwg-laksaman-ttf fonts-tlwg-loma fonts-tlwg-loma-ttf fonts-tlwg-mono fonts-tlwg-mono-ttf fonts-tlwg-norasi fonts-tlwg-norasi-ttf fonts-tlwg-purisa

  fonts-tlwg-purisa-ttf fonts-tlwg-sawasdee fonts-tlwg-sawasdee-ttf fonts-tlwg-typewriter fonts-tlwg-typewriter-ttf fonts-tlwg-typist fonts-tlwg-typist-ttf fonts-tlwg-typo

  fonts-tlwg-typo-ttf fonts-tlwg-umpush fonts-tlwg-umpush-ttf fonts-tlwg-waree fonts-tlwg-waree-ttf fonts-yrsa-rasa 

  fonts-noto-core fonts-noto-hinted fonts-noto-ui-core  fonts-noto-cjk

And thus my fonts list (in LibreOffice or Inkscape, a.o.) became much more useable, huray !

But this purge had the side-effect of removing xubuntu-default-settings (depending on fonts-noto-hinted), and thus xubuntu-core and xubuntu-desktop as well... meaning most of my software (including LibreOffice) is now on the apt autoremove list... so I can't clean my installs anymore.

How can I remove these non latin fonts while keeping the software stack of xubuntu-desktop untouched ?

I tried to reinstall xubuntu-desktop without recommended packages but to no avail (due to dependency on fonts-noto):

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends xubuntu-desktop

I also tried to Pin all these fonts to never install via adding to /etc/apt/preferences:

Package: <all fonts packages>

Pin: release *

Pin-Priority: -1

But my problem remained.