Thanks for the replies guys.
In regard to the simple hand-coding fixes that you've posted - Yes, in the example I created it would be an easy fix, because I created the video to be fast and to the point, but in my more complicated daily work I deal with very complex slices that are numerous and not symmetrical, and they range from daunting to almost impossible to fix by hand. Picture an image sliced into 20 cells with various table rows that contain slices of varying widths, then picture doing 20 of those a day, and you'll see why ImageReady is so important to me and why I don't just hand-code everything

(trust me, I can write a web page on a bar room napkin with a pencil in one hand and a beer in the other LOL, been hand-coding a lot of my work since 1996, and I've never used Frontpage or DreamWeaver. My downfall however, is CSS. Guess I'm just old-skool.)
I was able to get an Adobe employee to view videos I made, and it was someone who'd actually worked on ImageReady, and he has indeed (unofficially in private email) confirmed that there is something amiss with IR CS in regard to this issue after seeing my videos. We exchanged a few emails, and the only workaround that we could come up with is to create a Helper shortcut in PS CS to IR 2. Unfortunately the quicklink to IR CS is hard-coded into the PS CS tool palette, but at least creating a helper shortcut to IR2 in the PS CS menu is a better alternative than having to open everything manually in IR2.
The bottom line? Somebody made a boo-boo with IR CS that went overlooked at Adobe, and I was the first to discover it because it is one of my main tools for my daily work. In actuality, they will probably never publicly state that it is a boo-boo, it will probably be called a "feature" instead LOL! As I told the guy from Adobe, I've been a loyal customer for many years with a lot of money invested in their products, but I probably would not have laid down my cash for the CS upgrade had I known about this issue. Now I'm torn between taking the refund or eating it just because I'm finally getting used to PS CS. I have discovered a couple other bugs with IR CS, so I guess it'll depend on how irritated I get with it.