If that were the case, it could be that the attention from suspicious people made them think better of voting against this time. (I don't think it is, but I don't think this vote proves as much as you think)
"On 2017-06-23 Red Hat voted Abstain with the following comment:
Red Hat is voting Abstain at this time because although we think there has been positive progress within the EG to reach consensus since the last vote, we believe that there are a number of items within the current proposal which will impact wider community adoption that could have been addressed within the 30 day extension period for this release. However, we do not want to delay the Java 9 release and are happy with the more aggressive schedule proposed by the Specification Lead and EG for subsequent versions of Java because getting real world feedback on the modularity system will be key to understanding whether and where further changes need to occur. We hope that the Project Lead and EG will continue to be as open to input from the wider Java community as they have been in the last 30 days and look forward to the evolution of Java being driven by data from users and communities beyond OpenJDK.
We would also like to take the opportunity to thank the EG, the Oracle Specification Lead and others who assisted in the numerous meetings which have taken place in the last 30 days. This increased collaboration and positive approaches to discussing and resolving issues has been welcomed by ourselves and the wider Java community."
"On 2017-06-23 Red Hat voted Abstain with the following comment: Red Hat is voting Abstain at this time because although we think there has been positive progress within the EG to reach consensus since the last vote, we believe that there are a number of items within the current proposal which will impact wider community adoption that could have been addressed within the 30 day extension period for this release. However, we do not want to delay the Java 9 release and are happy with the more aggressive schedule proposed by the Specification Lead and EG for subsequent versions of Java because getting real world feedback on the modularity system will be key to understanding whether and where further changes need to occur. We hope that the Project Lead and EG will continue to be as open to input from the wider Java community as they have been in the last 30 days and look forward to the evolution of Java being driven by data from users and communities beyond OpenJDK.
We would also like to take the opportunity to thank the EG, the Oracle Specification Lead and others who assisted in the numerous meetings which have taken place in the last 30 days. This increased collaboration and positive approaches to discussing and resolving issues has been welcomed by ourselves and the wider Java community."