In defence of AGE (although no doubt he is perfectly capable of replying himself), he said:
there is a specific authority written down which describes the type of leak, the amount of leakage permitted and identifies areas where no leakage is permitted. There is no grey area
This applies to all aircraft I have been associated with, there is even a seperate AP which is devoted to the description. assessment and categorisation of leaks. Similarly with hyd systems, these decisions are not made lightly and if the opportunity arises the defect will be rectified, however there is a balance to be struck, which is one of the reasons for the Acceptable Deferred Faults log, it does what it says on the tin, acknowledging a problem, describing it, ensuring replacement parts if applicable are on order and providing a time and calendar limitation, additional inspections etc. In general most of these leaks are found and accepted because they are guided overboard by drains for that purpose. Where fluids leak into a compartment however I don't recall any instance of that being acceptable (happy to be corrected on that).