I think you misunderstand my point. The resolver is a different issue and I’m not asking for a “user-space” workaround.
If I understand correctly, this is a wrong implementation of the specification of REQUIRE file. I understand that it didn’t matter before the full transition to General but I think the current setup of General ignores what was specified in REQUIRE files.
Of course, I don’t know much about packaging system implementation so I may be missing some very obvious. I hope I’m not making unnecessary noise.