Generally, I wouldn't compile from source if the distro already provides packages. Specifically, we're running AOLserver on Ubuntu using packages tcl8.4, tcl8.4-dev, and tdom. (Configure --with-tcl=/usr/lib/tcl8.4 .)
Sure, packages are not always the very latest; tcl8.4 gives you 8.4.13 (with thread support). How is 8.4.14 superior? Is it worth the clutter?
Christian, I agree with you. Especially with apt-based distros I try to never build my own packages for base stuff. And I consider the webserver to be base stuff for most of my things.
A regular OpenACS developer should be happy with the packages provided by Debian stable: to my own astonishment all the necessary packages for OpenACS (save the dreadful daemontools) are even in the oldest possible Debian release.
