As I understand it (mostly from d/changelog entries), the hwclock tool may have been moved to -extra because modern kernels sync the RTC automatically. Did you check if manual hwclock invocation is actually needed in VMware VMs?
Another question: you mentioned "VMware guest customization". If that's done using some cloud-init or an equivalent tool, can you possibly add the -extra package as a package to install as part of the customization?
Hello and thanks for the additional information.
As I understand it (mostly from d/changelog entries), the hwclock tool may have been moved to -extra because modern kernels sync the RTC automatically. Did you check if manual hwclock invocation is actually needed in VMware VMs?
Another question: you mentioned "VMware guest customization". If that's done using some cloud-init or an equivalent tool, can you possibly add the -extra package as a package to install as part of the customization?