mcrowder & S.D. Steve,
While I certainly get your point that "occupying home plate" is kind of a strange concept, I believe that, by rule, the R3 in TwoBits' original sitch fulfills the requirements from exemption from unintentional interference stated in the highlighted section of 7.08(b) I quoted above.
I believe that the letter, spirit, & intent of the rule is to exempt a runner who is "in contact" with a base (any base) as long as he is "legally" in contact with that base. Per 7.01, the R3 meets the requirement.
I believe that TwoBits' description was intended to convey the point that the R3 was touching home at the time the contact with F2 occurred. Otherwise, he wouldn't have posed the "variation" at the very end of his initial post.
JM
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