apache httpd keepalive setting, when and why does redhat tweak this kinda thing?

["jim bartus" <jim bartus gmail com>]

In tweaking my loadbalancers a bit I realized keepalive's were not enabled on apache.  They're explicitly set to "off" in the default config file, and its documented here: 
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/en-US/Reference_Guide/s2-apache-keepalive.html

As opposed to the apache2 default, which is "on"
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/core.html#keepalive

So my first question is why, but the bigger question is how can I answer this myself?  Is this sort of thing typically noted in a changelog somewhere or commented in a patchfile?

-jim