Many thanks for double-checking! I must admit that I did overlooked something obvious, indeed, as I just found out. Short story: I re-booted the machine and -- ta-taa -- there was a shiny new sce-debpurge.
Long story (to keep those entertained that still are reading): I had been so fond of my
shiny new suspend and hibernate buttons that I completely forgot to really re-boot into the new initrd.
Sorry for the noise and thanks again for your support! BTW, I have not only been busy suspending on and off but have a final bulk of writing for the wiki about handling extensions in the works.
Cheers!