Finally I'll note that the only examples I've seen, and I actually
did suck down the repo for lisp-interface-library, *do not show
:use :cl*. For instance have a look at the code snippets from the
ASDF.pdf manual on page 26. There are two there, and neither has
a use :cl or :common-lisp or whatever.
To fix this is trivial. Add in a :use :cl in those code snippets,
and perhaps add "be sure to add :use :cl if you :use any other
systems" in the docs for uiop:define-package.
Are you frustrated enough to locate and fix all the misleading documentation? I admit I'm fully responsible for getting it wrong, but I have ceased being active in Common Lisp or as an ASDF developer long ago. (These days: Gerbil Scheme, and... some Haskell recently.) The current maintainers and future documentation readers will thank you.
git grep -i define-package should help you.
Regards,
-#f