(1) no embedded nodes - just the node content

(2) embedded nodes - outer node encloses node content

See the minimal example.

For me this works out a disaster, because in the second case the outer node is added, throwing my program completely off track.

Questions:

Is this the defined behaviour? Then what other means can be used to get the node content and nothing but the node content in both cases?

Why does \xmlstrippednolines behaves in this manner?