setup.py: handle missing pkg_resources import by chenrui333 · Pull Request #592 · html5lib/html5lib-python
I think the issue can be avoided as the check is only for setuptools less than 18.5 and pkg_resources was removed in setuptools 82 so the import failure means there is no need to do the version check and it is enough to set pkg_resources to None:
--- a/setup.py +++ b/setup.py @@ -6,9 +6,11 @@ import sys from os.path import join, dirname from setuptools import setup, find_packages, __version__ as setuptools_version -from pkg_resources import parse_version -import pkg_resources +try: + import pkg_resources +except ImportError: + pkg_resources = None try: import _markerlib.markers