As for other Gnome/Gtk apps linking with Mozilla, such as Galeon or SkipStone, they both have an additional distribution clause allowing linking with Mozilla.
Regarding what Debian did, I won't argue whether it was right or wrong (though I believe it was the right thing [tm]), but I'm certain Qt wouldn't be GPL now if Debian had included KDE at the beginning. You may call this being anal about licenses, but IMHO it's the only way to show licenses still mean something.