Please see this thread regarding rendering audio to stereo vs mono. There seem some things that would help with workflow.

• When you select "Render, "Render to Stereo WAV", if the "Edit, Track, Merge" setting is already mono, you get a resulting mono file (even though you are not merging tracks, you are rendering to an external WAV file. You also do not get a warning that the resulting file might be mono (even though the menu item says stereo).
• In the "Edit, Track, Merge" screen, you actually have to merge a track to change the mono setting (unless it's located somewhere else that I haven't found yet). It seems to me that you should be able to change this setting without performing the action, especially since it affects the completely separate render command.

Thanks John for letting us know. It confirms another users findings.