I second (3rd? 4th?) this request. I upgraded to the latest 0.6.8.3 and it still does the same thing. Choice between 1) 48 removals or 2) 1 upgrade. I do have a lot of manually held packages as well, so I think Martin von Wittich might be on the right track. The worst part is that non-experienced users can trash their system quite easily.
-- Chris Tillman Developer