packaging: simply prune some directories in MANIFEST.in in a dedicated block
exclude+recursive-exclude is basically prune.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html $if(lang)$ lang="$lang$" $endif$ dir="ltr">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>$if(title)$$title$$endif$</title>
$if(template_css)$
<link rel="stylesheet" href="$template_css$">
$else$
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/uikit/2.26.4/css/uikit.gradient.css">
$endif$
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.2.1.min.js"></script>
<script src="uikit.js"></script>
<script src="scripts.js"></script>
<script src="jquery.sticky-kit.js "></script>
<meta name="generator" content="pandoc-uikit" />
$for(author-meta)$
<meta name="author" content="$author-meta$" />
$endfor$
$if(date-meta)$
<meta name="date" content="$date-meta$" />
$endif$
<title>$if(title-prefix)$$title-prefix$ - $endif$$pagetitle$</title>
<style type="text/css">code{white-space: pre;}</style>
$if(quotes)$
<style type="text/css">q { quotes: "“" "”" "‘" "’"; }</style>
$endif$
$if(highlighting-css)$
<style type="text/css">
$highlighting-css$
</style>
$endif$
$for(css)$
<link rel="stylesheet" href="$css$" $if(html5)$$else$type="text/css" $endif$/>
$endfor$
$if(math)$
$math$
$endif$
$for(header-includes)$
$header-includes$
$endfor$
</head>
<body>
<div class="uk-container uk-container-center uk-margin-top uk-margin-large-bottom">
$if(title)$
<div class="uk-grid" data-uk-grid-margin>
<div class="uk-width-1-1">
<h1 class="uk-heading-large">$title$</h1>
$if(date)$
<h3 class="uk-heading-large">$date$</p></h3>
$endif$
$for(author)$
<p class="uk-text-large">$author$</p>
$endfor$
</div>
</div>
$endif$
<div class="uk-grid" data-uk-grid-margin >
<div class="uk-width-medium-1-4">
<div class="uk-overflow-container" data-uk-sticky="{top:25,media: 768}">
<div class="uk-panel uk-panel-box menu-begin" >
$if(toc)$
$toc$
$endif$
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="uk-width-medium-3-4">
$body$
</div>
</div>
$if(analytics)$
<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
ga('create', '$analytics$', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');
$endif$
</div>
</body>
</html>