If the same process is followed as was used for the "decruft"
process, the IESG still has to sign off. That sort of
small team effort may take the IESG (at least temporarily)
out of the critical path, but, if I understand the concept
of "gating", it doesn't change that fact.
john
One thing I liked about decruft is that the IESG was
delegating all the work except approval. "Gating" matters, but
so does who does most of the work.
I would not be offended to see process change that delegates
some approvals, but delegating work right up to the point of
approval doesn't require process change, and somehow seems to
"gate less" on the IESG.