docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html says that python numbers.Real "represent machine-level double precision floating-point numbers", going on to say "You are at the mercy of the underlying [hardware/software implementation] for the accepted range and handling of overflow". If the test suite still fails on VAXen, I would say it's broken to the point that filing a bug report against the test suite is appropriate.
Perhaps the gatekeepers represent a small, vocal minority, but a few of the Python folks got VERY upset at the idea of supporting non-IEEE floating point.
It might be worth trying again. Perhaps they've forgotten me by now, or someone else can suggest having the option to skip NaN / infinity tests. We could say it's for an embedded environment with software floating point so we don't upset the gatekeepers.
John