Greetings, again, Werner.

I have another aspect to call to your attention.

I am not positive, but I think it is the case, that if one uses
Synaptic to remove programs from the remaster, that the resultant iso
may actually increase in size, rather than decrease.

I have not tried your approach for removing programs, to see if this
is the case for your method as well.

If there is some difference between doing the program removal via
Synaptic or via your method, then there surely must be some adjustment to
using Synaptic that would serve just as well. Perhaps reloading or using
'clean' or some such already built-in feature of Synaptic.

Have your already run into this phenomenon?