The legal loophole RedHat found I'm guessing is something that might trigger GPLv4 to stop this behaviour (effectively punishing someone for exercising their GPL rights).
You're right that most use of OSS doesn't involve modification so it doesn't really matter, but packaging changes are still useful.
I know Stallman was the strongest advocate of the GPL but personally I like the principle of reciprocity which it enshrines. For all of their contributions it's important to realise that companies like RedHat are very much building on the work of OSS developers.