You seem to be into the minutiae of reexam. What I wonder about is how the new claims get plugged into the original patent. You will note that along with the response is a claims listing. The heading of that document reads as follows:

This listing of claims will replace all prior versions, and listings of claims in the application.

Let's say exam in complete and the plan is to issue cert. How do they get that listing of claims into the original patent? At some point they need to pull the origninal and check that the patent owner has correctly worded the orignial claims which have remained unchanged. If this newly submitted document replaces all others, they must do this. IMHO this is why you see the original patents pulled into the record room. They are checking those origninal claims to make sure there are no changes of any kind. Of course you do not do this if a rejection is in the offing. What do you think of that opinion? OPTY