I don't think
@Petzold necessarily meant it is the eligibility checks that take longer, just that the application will take longer to pass all stages. Here's a thought: If a person with prior visa refusals calls IRCC after passing A11.2, does the agent continue to say "your
eligibility is review required", or does he say "you passed eligibility, criminality, security, but your
application is review required"? I guess they need to put the RR status under some section or another. This does not mean it prevents A11.2 checks in any way.
I totally agree with you that info-sharing is being done anyway, we already submit PCCs, biometrics—it should take less than a day to look into and clear any prior visa refusal reasons. I wish this were the case. But if you check out the Montreal visa office thread (that's the VO where most "review required" applications seem to end up), most such applications take longer than average to process, even when the RR is only because of prior visa refusals. Who knows, this might be because once a file gets an RR status, ircc is no longer held accountable to the 6-month processing timeframe.