Question about RPM and fonts

While reading QUE's "Red Hat Linux: Installation & Configuration" and

the chapter on RPM I decided to verify my XFree86-75dpi-fonts-3.3.6-20
installation.
  One problem was found - 'modification time, file mode'.  
Not knowing what to make of this, I decided to try an install and then
update.  Both indicated a previous install (as expected) and recommended
to NOT.  I took that advice but still wanting to get some hands-on I
uninstalled, but got the following error message:
    Cannot remove  /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi ?  directory not empty
Determined to not go one day without bloodying my nose on this OS, I
went to the directory in question and found a file "encoding.dir".  I
went to delete it and received the complimentary breaking glass
warning... startles me every time.  Not to be discouraged I deleted the
file and to my surprise the list in GnoRPM of installed packages
immediately removed that package. Cool.
I installed the package but upon re-verifying got the same error. 
Hmmm.  Is my CPU too slow (133 P5) or what?
    Lastly, I went to that directory again  /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi 
but instead of one file containing a list of fonts there's 200 files
with what seems the same fonts listed in 'encoding.dir'.
    I'm not having any problems, I'm just curious about what happened.

Explanations appreciated.