The only thing keeping ls on your debian system is other packages having a dependency on it. There is no distinction between operating system and 3rd party packages, all of it is 3rd party packages. I have no idea where you are getting this weird notion about ls and where it was designed to run being a bug. I simply corrected an erroneous statement about what makes up a BSD operating system.

Why would it make a difference whether ls is part of the operating system or not? It works.

And if, next week, I write a better ls, I can install it and use it.

Would you mind simply reading the thread? You are inventing an argument that does not exist. I did not make a value judgement, I corrected an erroneous statement. Nothing more.

I did read it. I just think the "complete OS" think doesn't really make sense. Is it superior because of it? More elegant?

I do not how to make this any clearer for you. You said the reason his freebsd system works is because a bunch of independent components happen to fit together. This is false, and that is what I said. That's it. If you said 1+1=3 and I said "actually, 1+1=2" would you then insist on a giant thread of trying to create an argument about whether or not two is a good number?