pretty much the same arguments used in bug #170029 and bug #170031. Please remove all %{_libdir}/lib*.la files and static libs from the -devel package. This will reduce libtool/library bloat. Further, it will (mostly) solve the problem of needing to add extreneous Requires: db4-devel to other (-devel) packages built against db4-devel (to account for the references to /usr/lib/libdb-4.3.la in their own .la files). (mostly Library) packages with .la files of their own that BuildRequires: db4-devel will need to be rebuilt after this modification. If you insist in still including the .la files (and static libraries), please package them separately into something like db4-static or db4-devel-static, so it would be possible to omit this extra crud in other rpms that BuildRequires: db4-devel via BuildConflicts: db4-devel-static
I *think* rpm still needs the static libs... so let's just target the .la files, which is pretty much agreed Best Practice these days.
My list of bugs is too long already, marking WONTFIX (for now). (: This issue will/should get addressed during the F7 package review anyway.