You put in /etc/zshrc the line
           bindkey -e

Which forces emacs mode. Why? The default zsh behavior already defaults to
emacs, unless the user uses either bindkey -v or sets EDITOR or VISUAL to
vi (or vi's full pathname). But because of that line you put in /etc/zshrc,
setting VISUAL in .zprofile no longer works as explained in the manual (and
as it used to), and now I'm forced to use "bindkey -v" in my own .zshrc.

I think that this arms-race is not very useful, and it is better if
Redhat's configuration don't try to enforce emacs mode...