Comment 13 for bug 409764

The Debian/Ubuntu packaging system is not limited at all. That's what Recommends are for. :)

Rather, the limitation seems to be in langpack-o-matic, which is apparently incapable of producing binary control files with package relationships other than Depends.

Recommends can be skipped using --without-recommends on Aptitude. They can also be removed afterwards without affecting the package that pulled them.