1. The decision to allow Mono to enter the tree seems to have been made
arbitrarily by Red Hat, with no community consultation, and in spite
of protests (including some by high profile Red Hat personnel -
mostly expressed as a rejection of Mono before the announcement).
I think you are entirely mischaracterizing what happened. General Fedora policy is essentially a package is innocent until proven guilty. If it meets packaging policy, it can go in. (Keep in mind, policy does cover licensing and legal concerns) There was no decision to allow Mono in, rather, there was a decision to keep it *out* for legal reasons. Those legal concerns were addressed, thus Mono gets in by default.