Currently, most C applications and libraries with GNU C extensions need package.env modifications to compile successfully. There are a lot of developers out there who assume GNU C extensions are available by default and omit the -std=gnu(c-version) compiler flag. The LLVM toolchain on my system defaults to ISO C, and has GNU extensions disabled by default when the standard is not specified using this flag. C++ applications and libraries aren't that much affected, but it can happen there too in rare cases.
Maybe there is a more elegant way to handle this problem without implicitly enabling GNU extensions in the toolchain again. A (almost) GNU-free Gentoo should have a compiler which defaults to ISO C.