Adding a barebones install option isn't worth it?
Part of it is increasing the flexibility of fedora by allowing it to be installed on a wider array of embedded platforms. The other part is just install efficiency, not having to waste time removing hundreds of rpms which are useless for headless ISP servers.
I think that's part of it, too - fedora's not really targeting the server infrastructure, is it :)
In the end it comes down to fedora being flexible and easily deployable across a wider array of constrained hardware.
I don't see why fedora should aim for regression vs. RH9 in this respect.
Since you can do the install classes now I don't really see it as a regression but <shrug> spin it however you'd like.
-sv