Rationale for package removals

[WARNING: Contains rant.  Apologies in advance for my grumpy tone.]

Having had a look at
<ftp://ftp.eu.uu.net/pub/linux/redhat/linux/8.0/en/os/i386/RELEASE-NOTES.html>, 

i find myself wondering whether it is even worth participating in this
mailing list.  Does Red Hat pay any attention to our discussions here?
  In the release notes i found this:

The following packages have been removed from this release of Red Hat
Linux:

     * alien
     * auth_ldap
     * blt
     * dip
     * fvwm2
     * elm
     * extace
     * glms
     * gnomeicu
     * gnome-pim
     * gnorpm
     * gphoto
     * gq
     * ical
     * jikes
     * kaffe
     * kontrol-panel
     * metamail
     * micq
     * mm
     * mod_auth_any
     * mod_bandwidth
     * mod_dav
     * mod_put
     * mod_roaming
     * mod_throttle
     * netscape
     * playmidi
     * pump
     * rpmfind
     * rpmlint
     * rxvt
     * sliplogin
     * smpeg
     * smpeg-xmms
     * snavigator
     * taper
     * xbill
     * xdaliclock
     * xlockmore
     * xmailbox
     * xpilot


A number of these were discussed here previously, but the list is
substantially longer now than it was for the (null) beta - much of it
presumably as the result of an apache package reorganisation - but still
not even a word about why the packages were removed or what the
alternatives are.

What does it take to get some useful information about this?  Buying an
RHN subscription?  A personal letter to Michael Tiemann?  :-/

PDG