i haven't been practicing all that long, about 2.5 years tbh
but i dont deal with federal appeals, so admittedly out of my domain. if its specifically about the judge's supposed abuse of discretion i would imagine this is the expected result. usually in an appeal or writ the parties at the trial level are adversarial... so if the defendant pursued a writ the prosecutor would be opposing it
this situation is different because neither of the parties are the natural opposition, so it really has to be the judge. most cases dont have the 2 parties in agreement with the judge standing in the way, which is why i dont see it as particularly striking. the dynamic of 2 parties agreeing with the judge is the barrier is almost certainly unusual, so i would imagine a lot of what's going on is uncommon. that doenst mean sullivan being ordered to oppose the writ is unexpected given the dynamic at hand