diff --git a/www-client/qutebrowser/qutebrowser-3.0.0_pre9999.ebuild b/www-client/qutebrowser/qutebrowser-3.0.0_pre9999.ebuild
index cffa4849cc2ee..0de37e2649d83 100644
--- a/www-client/qutebrowser/qutebrowser-3.0.0_pre9999.ebuild
+++ b/www-client/qutebrowser/qutebrowser-3.0.0_pre9999.ebuild
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ EAPI=8
 DISTUTILS_SINGLE_IMPL=1
 DISTUTILS_USE_PEP517=setuptools
 PYTHON_COMPAT=( python3_{9..11} )
-inherit distutils-r1 multiprocessing xdg
+inherit distutils-r1 xdg
 
 if [[ ${PV} == *9999 ]]; then
 	inherit git-r3
@@ -30,14 +30,16 @@ RDEPEND="
 		>=dev-python/jinja-3.1.2[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 		>=dev-python/markupsafe-2.1.1[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 		dev-python/pygments[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		>=dev-python/pyyaml-6[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		dev-python/pyyaml[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 		dev-python/zipp[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		adblock? ( dev-python/adblock[${PYTHON_USEDEP}] )')
+		adblock? ( dev-python/adblock[${PYTHON_USEDEP}] )
+	')
 	qt6? (
 		dev-qt/qtbase:6[icu]
 		$(python_gen_cond_dep '
 			dev-python/PyQt6[${PYTHON_USEDEP},dbus,gui,network,opengl,printsupport,qml,sql,widgets]
-			dev-python/PyQt6-WebEngine[${PYTHON_USEDEP},widgets]')
+			dev-python/PyQt6-WebEngine[${PYTHON_USEDEP},widgets]
+		')
 		pdf? ( www-plugins/pdfjs )
 	)
 	!qt6? (
@@ -45,7 +47,8 @@ RDEPEND="
 		dev-qt/qtgui:5[png]
 		$(python_gen_cond_dep '
 			dev-python/PyQt5[${PYTHON_USEDEP},dbus,declarative,gui,network,opengl,printsupport,sql,widgets]
-			dev-python/PyQtWebEngine[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]')
+			dev-python/PyQtWebEngine[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		')
 		pdf? ( <www-plugins/pdfjs-3 )
 	)
 	widevine? ( www-plugins/chrome-binary-plugins )"
@@ -60,12 +63,12 @@ BDEPEND="
 			dev-python/pytest-mock[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 			dev-python/pytest-qt[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 			dev-python/pytest-rerunfailures[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-			dev-python/pytest-xdist[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 			dev-python/pytest-xvfb[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 			dev-python/tldextract[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 			qt6? ( dev-python/PyQt6[testlib] )
 			!qt6? ( dev-python/PyQt5[testlib] )
-		)')"
+		)
+	')"
 [[ ${PV} == *9999 ]] && BDEPEND+=" app-text/asciidoc"
 
 distutils_enable_tests pytest
@@ -78,8 +81,8 @@ src_prepare() {
 			-i ${PN}/config/configdata.yml || die
 	fi
 
-	if use widevine; then
-		# Qt6 knows Gentoo's, but pass for libdir, EPREFIX, and Qt5(bug #888783)
+	if use widevine && use prefix; then
+		# hack: QtWebEngine knows Gentoo's widevine, but not with ${EPREFIX}
 		local widevine=${EPREFIX}/usr/$(get_libdir)/chromium-browser/WidevineCdm/_platform_specific/linux_x64/libwidevinecdm.so
 		sed -e "/yield from _qtwebengine_settings_args/a\    yield '--widevine-path=${widevine}'" \
 			-i ${PN}/config/qtargs.py || die
@@ -120,18 +123,17 @@ python_test() {
 		# https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/888 (not just OSX)
 		tests/end2end
 		tests/unit/misc/test_ipc.py
+		# calls eclass' python2 "failure" wrapper
+		tests/unit/misc/test_checkpyver.py::test_old_python
 		# not worth running dbus over
 		tests/unit/browser/test_notification.py::TestDBus
 		# bug 819393
 		tests/unit/commands/test_userscripts.py::test_custom_env[_POSIXUserscriptRunner]
-		# calls eclass' python2 "failure" wrapper
-		tests/unit/misc/test_checkpyver.py::test_old_python
-		# qtargs are mangled with USE=widevine
-		$(usev widevine tests/unit/config/test_qtargs.py)
+		# tests that don't know about our newer qtwebengine:5
+		tests/unit/browser/webengine/test_webenginedownloads.py::TestDataUrlWorkaround
 	)
-
-	# single thread is slow, but do half+1 given spikes ram usage quickly
-	local jobs=$(($(makeopts_jobs) / 2 + 1))
+	# qtargs are mangled with widevine+prefix
+	use widevine && use prefix && EPYTEST_DESELECT+=( tests/unit/config/test_qtargs.py )
 
 	# skip benchmarks (incl. _tree), and warning tests broken by -Wdefault
 	epytest -p xvfb -n ${jobs} -k 'not _bench and not _matches_tree and not _warning'
diff --git a/www-client/qutebrowser/qutebrowser-9999.ebuild b/www-client/qutebrowser/qutebrowser-9999.ebuild
index 3d0c12b406554..7cb5d6ee35045 100644
--- a/www-client/qutebrowser/qutebrowser-9999.ebuild
+++ b/www-client/qutebrowser/qutebrowser-9999.ebuild
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ else
 	KEYWORDS="~amd64 ~arm64 ~x86"
 fi
 
-DESCRIPTION="Keyboard-driven, vim-like browser based on PyQt5 and QtWebEngine"
+DESCRIPTION="Keyboard-driven, vim-like browser based on Python and Qt"
 HOMEPAGE="https://www.qutebrowser.org/"
 
 LICENSE="GPL-3+"
@@ -24,23 +24,25 @@ SLOT="0"
 IUSE="+adblock pdf widevine"
 
 RDEPEND="
+	$(python_gen_cond_dep '
+		dev-python/PyQt5[${PYTHON_USEDEP},dbus,declarative,gui,network,opengl,printsupport,sql,widgets]
+		dev-python/PyQtWebEngine[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		dev-python/colorama[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		>=dev-python/jinja-3.1.2[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		>=dev-python/markupsafe-2.1.1[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		dev-python/pygments[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		dev-python/pyyaml[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		dev-python/zipp[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		adblock? ( dev-python/adblock[${PYTHON_USEDEP}] )
+	')
 	dev-qt/qtcore:5[icu]
 	dev-qt/qtgui:5[png]
-	$(python_gen_cond_dep '
-		dev-python/colorama[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		>=dev-python/jinja-3.0.2[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		>=dev-python/markupsafe-2.0.1[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		dev-python/pygments[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		dev-python/PyQt5[${PYTHON_USEDEP},dbus,declarative,multimedia,gui,network,opengl,printsupport,sql,widgets]
-		dev-python/PyQtWebEngine[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		dev-python/pyyaml[${PYTHON_USEDEP},libyaml(+)]
-		dev-python/zipp[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		adblock? ( dev-python/adblock[${PYTHON_USEDEP}] )')
 	pdf? ( <www-plugins/pdfjs-3 )
 	widevine? ( www-plugins/chrome-binary-plugins )"
 BDEPEND="
 	$(python_gen_cond_dep '
 		test? (
+			dev-python/PyQt5[testlib]
 			dev-python/beautifulsoup4[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 			dev-python/cheroot[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 			dev-python/flask[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
@@ -51,8 +53,9 @@ BDEPEND="
 			dev-python/pytest-rerunfailures[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 			dev-python/pytest-xvfb[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 			dev-python/tldextract[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		)')"
-[[ ${PV} != 9999 ]] || BDEPEND+=" app-text/asciidoc"
+		)
+	')"
+[[ ${PV} == 9999 ]] && BDEPEND+=" app-text/asciidoc"
 
 distutils_enable_tests pytest
 
@@ -60,13 +63,14 @@ src_prepare() {
 	distutils-r1_src_prepare
 
 	if use pdf; then
-		sed '/^content.pdfjs:/,+1s/false/true/' \
+		sed -e '/^content.pdfjs:/,+1s/false/true/' \
 			-i ${PN}/config/configdata.yml || die
 	fi
 
-	if use widevine; then
+	if use widevine && use prefix; then
+		# hack: QtWebEngine knows Gentoo's widevine, but not with ${EPREFIX}
 		local widevine=${EPREFIX}/usr/$(get_libdir)/chromium-browser/WidevineCdm/_platform_specific/linux_x64/libwidevinecdm.so
-		sed "/yield from _qtwebengine_settings_args/a\    yield '--widevine-path=${widevine}'" \
+		sed -e "/yield from _qtwebengine_settings_args/a\    yield '--widevine-path=${widevine}'" \
 			-i ${PN}/config/qtargs.py || die
 	fi
 
@@ -75,18 +79,21 @@ src_prepare() {
 
 	if [[ ${PV} == 9999 ]]; then
 		# call asciidoc(1) rather than the single target python module
-		sed '/cmdline = /s/= .*/= ["asciidoc"]/' \
+		sed -e '/cmdline = /s/= .*/= ["asciidoc"]/' \
 			-i scripts/asciidoc2html.py || die
 
 		"${EPYTHON}" scripts/asciidoc2html.py || die
 	fi
 
-	# these plugins/tests are unnecessary here and have extra dependencies
-	sed -e '/pytest-benchmark/d;s/--benchmark[^ ]*//' \
-		-e '/pytest-instafail/d;s/--instafail//' \
+	# disable unnecessary tests/plugins that need extras
+	sed -e '/pytest-benchmark/d' -e 's/--benchmark[^ ]*//' \
+		-e '/pytest-instafail/d' -e 's/--instafail//' \
 		-i pytest.ini || die
-	[[ ${PV} == 9999 ]] || rm tests/unit/scripts/test_problemmatchers.py || die
-	[[ ${PV} != 9999 ]] || rm tests/unit/scripts/test_run_vulture.py || die
+	if [[ ${PV} == 9999 ]]; then
+		rm tests/unit/scripts/test_run_vulture.py || die
+	else
+		rm tests/unit/scripts/test_problemmatchers.py || die
+	fi
 }
 
 python_test() {
@@ -94,21 +101,21 @@ python_test() {
 
 	local EPYTEST_DESELECT=(
 		# end2end and other IPC tests are broken with "Name error" if
-		# socket path is over 104 characters (=124 in /var/tmp/portage)
+		# socket path is over ~104 characters (=124 in /var/tmp/portage)
 		# https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/888 (not just OSX)
 		tests/end2end
 		tests/unit/misc/test_ipc.py
-		# tests that don't know about our newer qtwebengine
-		tests/unit/browser/webengine/test_webenginedownloads.py::TestDataUrlWorkaround
-		tests/unit/utils/test_version.py::TestChromiumVersion
-		# may misbehave depending on installed old python versions
+		# calls eclass' python2 "failure" wrapper
 		tests/unit/misc/test_checkpyver.py::test_old_python
-		# bug 819393
-		tests/unit/commands/test_userscripts.py::test_custom_env[_POSIXUserscriptRunner]
 		# not worth running dbus over
 		tests/unit/browser/test_notification.py::TestDBus
+		# bug 819393
+		tests/unit/commands/test_userscripts.py::test_custom_env[_POSIXUserscriptRunner]
+		# tests that don't know about our newer qtwebengine:5
+		tests/unit/browser/webengine/test_webenginedownloads.py::TestDataUrlWorkaround
 	)
-	use widevine && EPYTEST_DESELECT+=( tests/unit/config/test_qtargs.py )
+	# qtargs are mangled with widevine+prefix
+	use widevine && use prefix && EPYTEST_DESELECT+=( tests/unit/config/test_qtargs.py )
 
 	# skip benchmarks (incl. _tree), and warning tests broken by -Wdefault
 	epytest -p xvfb -k 'not _bench and not _matches_tree and not _warning'