This is a subtle change in linking that no one is able to change without recompiling the compiler. What are the benefits of doing this? The quote I found from the manpage was:

> This option affects ELF DT_NEEDED tags for dynamic libraries mentioned on the command line after the --as-needed option. Normally the linker will add a DT_NEEDED tag for each dynamic library mentioned on the command line, regardless of whether the library is actually needed or not. --as-needed causes a DT_NEEDED tag to only be emitted for a library that satisfies an undefined symbol reference from a regular object file or, if the library is not found in the DT_NEEDED lists of other libraries linked up to that point, an undefined symbol reference from another dynamic library. --no-as-needed restores the default behaviour. 

Which sounds like a library may not link to a native dynamic library even if I ask the compiler to do so. I don't really know of a use case for doing that, but I don't want to prohibit that from happening just because I don't understand the use case.