The "manpages" and any "locale" packages are neither required nor important so are not included in a Debian minbase install. If you want them, you can install

The "manpages" and any "locale" packages are neither required nor important so are not included in a Debian minbase install. If you want them, you can install them easily with apt. I'm not sure what you mean by apt being stripped down. You get the normal apt still.