In RHEL those old Python interpreters are available precisely via the system package manager. And they won't support you if you install Python from a 3rd party RPM as I understand.
Yes. There are people who value support for a fixed version for 10 or more years much more than they'd value "rolling" support for a "latest" version that they have to keep updating their apps for.
People who use RHEL this way do not keep any third-party packages up-to-date. If that means a decade on Django 1.2, well, they spend a decade on Django 1.2 -- Red Hat will backport security fixes into a Red-Hat-packaged Django 1.2.
