The following packages will be REMOVED:
alien* build-essential* cdbs* compiz-mate* cpp* cpp-9* debhelper* dh-autoreconf* dh-systemd* dh-translations* g++* g++-9* gcc* gcc-9*
gcc-9-base* gnome-pkg-tools* libasan5* libgcc-9-dev* libstdc++-9-dev* libtool* libtool-bin* mate-control-center*
mate-desktop-environment-core* mate-settings-daemon* mate-tweak* php7.2-dev* x11-xserver-utils* xorg*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 28 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
After this operation, 134 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n Abort.
That's totally expected. Here's the deal: In ye olden days (circa 1986, that is), GCC stood for "GNU C Compiler". Now that the GCC package contains a C++ compiler, Objective-C, Objective-C++, Fortran, Go, Ada, and other such compilers, it's inaccurate to say that GCC stands for "GNU C Compiler"; now GCC stands for "GNU Compiler Collection". The command gcc is still named such for historical reasons, mostly because classic Unix systems had a C compiler named simply cc, and (believe it or not) most build configuration scripts you're likely to come across assume the C compiler's name ends with the suffix cc in some way or another.
In summary: That's expected. You got the commands right. You found the solution yourself, as usual.