Source: db5.3 Severity: wishlist X-Debbugs-Cc: 987...@bugs.debian.org
There is a Sleepycat-licensed fork of BerkeleyDB at https://github.com/bloomberg/comdb2/tree/master/berkdb. Maybe this is a way forward as long as #987013 (removal) is not resolved and bugs like #928441 are lurking.
