Approved (FNBO) Old National Bank Silver American Express

As everyone knows, FNBO is strange when it comes to inquiries.  On May 12th I hit the cli button on line for my Rakuten Mastercard.  They have a disclaimer that they will try a SP first and then a HP is they can't increase it on SP.  My EX was on ice so I hit the button.  On May 14th did some research and decided to apply for the Old National Silver American Express backed by FNBO.  Thawed EX and hit the button.  Immediately pending message.  Called FNBO this morning and csr said I see you have a pending cli on the Rakuten and a new application.  The cli is pending because EX is on ice.  I said yes but FNBO pulled my credit on May 14th for Old National Bank application.  CSR said yes I see that and let me see if credit department can use that same pull for the cli since they usually use the same pull within 30 days.  I said ok.  She puts me on hold and comes back within 1 minute (literally) and says denied due to excessive inquiries (44) .  No surprise there!  Fast forward a couple hours later today and I get a call from FNBO regarding the Old National Bank application.  Analyst said she had 3-4 questions from my credit file to ask me because my application was forwarded for manual review.  I answered the questions from my credit file.  No mention of inquiries or new accounts.  She said that's all I need and I'll get this processed for you today.  I asked would someone be notifying me of the decision.  She said you will get the card in 7-10 days.  Application status website still says pending but when I called back in csr said it was approved but the limit won't populate until after processing tonight.  Hopefully a decent limit following the trend of my other 3 FNBO cards (sl's) Rakuten 2500, Overstock Mastercard 6600, Sun Country 10k.  That would be sweet but probably a 2500 limit which is ok too since their cards do grow on SP's.  6 months seem to be the waiting period (for me anyway) in applying for new FNBO accounts.