TOPIC: Collect Requirements - Approve Scope Management Plan first?

If the 'Collect Requirements' process is executed according to the Scope Management Plan and the Requirements Management Plan, and if those are subsidiary plans of the Project Management Plan, should the approval of the Project Management Plan occur BEFORE the 'Collect Requirements' process takes place?

Those components are part of the PM, so this means the PM plan comes after those and everything else that makes up that PM plan. It may be that later, a change of those subsidiary plans occur, but since the PM plan is an integration of many components, the PM plan really is last and a result of those components.

I understand your reasoning. But doesn't it strike you as odd that the Scope Management Plan and Requirements Management Plan are the plans you need to follow while collecting requirements and defining scope, and yet those plans don't get approved before you actually collect requirements and define scope?

No, because you are in the planning stage and have not executed the project.