D. R. Evans composed on 2017-09-24 21:55 (UTC+0600):
One more question as a follow-on to this: when TDE is installed, is it still possible to run KDE despite the fact that the debian desktiop-base is no longer in place? (Just in case some program doesn't work on TDE and I have to go back to KDE temporarily.)
KDE apps don't require a Plasma session to use them. I can't remember ever trying to run one in TDE that wouldn't work, though I haven't found reason to try many.
You should not have to "go back" to KDE to run KDE apps, just like you don't need to use a Gnome session to run Mozilla's (GTK) apps.