Im sure why, but my viewscoped-bean doesnt get persisted when redisplaying the same page. Im wondering if this is because of the use of facelet templates ?
Based on advice posted here, I have started using MyFaces CODI to solve this problem. I can't tell you if Seam or CODI is better, but at least it lets me move past trying to puzzle out scopes and get on with coding the application.