Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard, Texlive's texdoc maintainer, posted a response to my question about Texlive's restricted execution model, explaining why the feature was yanked from Texlive 2009, and saying that the change is that details have been sorted out.
Recentlog
redi:
I see it now, but my, probably flawed,
recollection was that direct certifications didn't need time
to affect your recentlog filter. FWIW, I waited a few
minutes before feeling compelled to write my last diary
entry.</b>