Hi, We discussed this the other day and concluded net-misc/ntp is better-off m-n rather than under base-system@ given none of us recommend using it and it's not in a great state, but it has some keen users still.
Many many open bugs (including failing to startup: https://bugs.gentoo.org/962770) but making it m-n rather than last-riting at this point will hopefully make someone step up first. See https://bugs.gentoo.org/962880 for removal discussion too. thanks, sam
