I do not disagree with much of what you posted. I offer up some additional thoughts.
If the examiners were knowledgeable about microprocessors we might be in a different situation. The 148 examiner does not appear to have any prior microprocessor experience. Look to be more along the lines of printers, facsimile and imaging. In the case of the 336, the examiner appears to be fairly new in addition to not appearing to have microprocessor experience.
I suspect that the experienced people (like Eddie Chan) are working on new applications, where knowledge of what you are being asked to approve is a must. For a reexam, the examiner has the 3rd party input to help. Their task is to pluck out terms and phrases from other published works that match and challenge claims on that basis. It doesn't matter if the examiner's argument is comparing apples and oranges. If that's the case, the patent owner will make that point.
If I'm correct about the knowledge base of the 148 and 336 examiners, then you can better understand what kind of process is being used to find prior art and make arguments. And perhaps that explains why some of the examiner's arguments are a bit absurd. All IMHO Opty
