Oh, so I should use a defective version of mod_perl and a sub-optimal version of perl on my system to maintain the "packaging policy"? When I have a solution that has worked for years, is versatile, and I understand.
There are valid reasons to try to stick with RPMs, even when dealing with Perl mods... mainly to keep version sanity, given that you may encounter RPMs that depend on RPMs of Perl mods.
I've had a fair bit of luck with:
http://perl.arix.com/cpan2rpm/
Including building a nice RPM for mod_perl 2.0.2.
cheers, --Matt