Description of problem:
pip >= 20 has a mechanism that replaces our pip-allow-different-versions.patch
However, we keep our patch to support users doing e.g.:

    $ pip install --user --upgrade 'pip<20'

However, pip 19.3.1 (the latest <20 version) does not even operate without distutils:

    (venv3.12)$ pip list
    Package    Version
    ---------- -------
    pip        22.3.1
    setuptools 65.5.0

    (venv3.12)$ pip install --upgrade 'pip<20'
    ...

    (venv3.12) $ pip list
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File ".../venv3.12/bin/pip", line 5, in <module>
        from pip._internal.main import main
      File ".../venv3.12/lib64/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/main.py", line 13, in <module>
        from pip._internal.cli.autocompletion import autocomplete
      File ".../venv3.12/lib64/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/autocompletion.py", line 11, in <module>
        from pip._internal.cli.main_parser import create_main_parser
      File ".../venv3.12/lib64/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/main_parser.py", line 7, in <module>
        from pip._internal.cli import cmdoptions
      File ".../venv3.12/lib64/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/cmdoptions.py", line 19, in <module>
        from distutils.util import strtobool
    ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'

Hence, it no longer makes any sense to keep the patch when Fedora updates to Python 3.12. I've opened this bugzilla to track that removal.