People who don't do Python won't/can't use virtualenv. Also, you don't think that's a nasty workaround for something that should just be a non-issue? That's like you telling me to use NetBSD pkgsrc just to get around some ancient linux (which I have done).
Hi Zed. For the specific case of needing Python 2.6 on RHEL, ask your user to install the 'python26' package from EPEL. It's a semi official source of packages for RHEL including newer versions of OS tools that slot alongside those versions.