I disagree. Like I say in the comment for the ticket, you can't claim
that the auth application works correctly in your project if those
templates are not available.
The comparison with docutils tests is slightly off target. There is an
argument to me made for skipping those tests - but not because we
can't find the templates. Failing due to the non-existence of the
templates is a legitimate failure if the user is actually using the
views.
However, if the user is _not_ using the views (e.g., they're using the
auth.User model, but providing their own login views), there is an
argument to be made for skipping the tests.
There could actually be an overlap here with #4788 - that ticket calls
for a mechanism to skip and report tests that are known and acceptable
failures. Providing a project-level way to skip tests that are known
failures could be one solution to both problems.
Yours
Russ Magee %-)