lutime() for changing times of a symbolic link

[Edmund GRIMLEY EVANS]

With linux-2.4.18 it seems to be impossible to change the access and
modification times of a symbolic link because utime() follows links.
Is there any reason not to add an lutime() system call, analogously
with chown and lchown?

Obviously it's not a burning issue, but it would enable tar xf to do
its job properly and remove what looks like an anomaly.

Edmund