passport renewal from a rural location

A follow-up post from my earlier post on applying for a passport.

• Since I had a "Post office passport seva kendra" or "POPSK" in a nearby town of Hindupur, I could avoid going all the way to Hyderabad.
• In the online application process, I had to change my Passport regional office from Hyderabad to Vijayawada, since Hindupur comes under Vijayawada. But for doing this, the procedure is to create a new account - the old account's office cannot be changed. I checked this with the toll-free helpline too.
• After filling up the online form, after the last step of making the payment, there is no option to choose a date and time of convenience - the appointment date and time is intimated. So, if we need an appointment on a certain date, we have to keep checking the available dates at their website. Booking an appointment in the evening after 8 pm, like I did this time, seemed to result in an early morning appointment.
• The only required documents shown at the passportindia.gov.in website were the old passport and a proof of identity, for which Aadhaar was available. I took my Voter Id card (EPIC - Election Photo Identity Card) too, and also the old copies of all the documents I had taken for the initial passport application. That turned out to be useful. The passport officer asked me for proof, since I was born out of India and was a citizen by descent and not by birth. Note to self - take the old passports of parents on next renewal too!
• The officer also asked me to take fresh xerox copies of the first and last page of the passport on a single sheet, as well as page 4 & 5 (blank pages). I wonder why. Perhaps as proof that I had not gone out of the country after receiving the first passport booklet in 2014?
• The officer also refused to recognize my class X SSLC certificate (which is a booklet as they used to issue in Kerala in 1990), saying that it is Transfer Certificate and not X class certificate(!) and finally took my MSc certificate as proof that I'm a matriculate for "non-ECR category"!
• But overall, very smooth. Only 2 people in a tiny office - the passport officer and a lady to take the passport photos and biometrics - thumb/other fingerprints. As soon as we entered at 9:35, he started working with us, since ours was among the first appointments, even though the appointment time was 10 am. 
• And the drive to Hindupur was very pleasant, via a National Highway to Lepakshi. Left at 7:45, reached Hindupur POPSK at 9:15 after stopping for coffee and a restroom break at AP tourism hotel next to the Lepakshi bull. On the return, started at 10:10, reached back at 11:45 after taking the non-toll road, since we had to wait at a level crossing for a goods train for a few minutes.