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Why can't someone port the Direct3D API to Linux? This would save a lot of hassle of porting the games to OpenGL.

I don't think so. It's been almost 2 years since DirectX is available for MacOS, developed by British company Coderus. So far, no major breakthrough was achieved this way - main Macintosh game ports are done "the hard way" by companies like Aspyr Media, that's why it takes so long. Only a handful of Mac ports actually use MacDX. It's probably because when you move a game from Windows to Unix-ish environment, you still have to change so many things (Unix privileges etc.) that the 3D API is only a fraction of it.

Just as an FYI, there's a company called "coderus ltd" that produces a product called MacDX. It acts as a bridge between DirectX and the Mac OS:
http://www.coderus.com/
So things might not be as hard as they were in the past ...

If something like MacDX (by Coderus) would become more popular and have more features.

There already is a DirectX implementation of sorts for OS X, called MacDX by Coderus. It was responsible for a number of buggy ports of some lower profile titles.

If they switch to the PPC architecture, which I believe is still the rumor, then DirectX would be out the window wouldn't it, unless they use something similar to MacDX?

I don't know if Doom3 uses DirectX, but there is a company called Coderus that makes porting games & apps that do use it easier. They've created a library called MacDX that is basically a wrapper for all the DirectX calls to make them work on a Mac. It's carbon, so it'll work with both X & classic too.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Coderus, and I haven't tried MacDX, but the idea sounds neat.