FINAL UPDATE!
ok i got my car back from scott's earlier this week... and i'm very happy to say that all the problems are now fixed.
here's what was tackled at this last service:
wind noise (at 70+kph) - both front waist moulds (the seal at the bottom of the windows on the outside) were found to be faulty; new moulds were ordered and fitted, tested at 100kmh this morning and the wind noise is gone.
rattling front passenger seat - after 2 separate attempts to dismantle and repair the seat, they found that the whole seat frame (base and back) was faulty, a new one was ordered in, rattles gone.
rattling from passenger-side front airbag - this is the interesting one. turns out that i had good reason to be concerned about this rattle:
The airbag was not properly installed at the factory. the technical word written on my warranty report is "misaligned," but the service manager explained to me that the physical installation of the airbag is a 2-step process, the first step of which wasn't done properly.
general creaking/rubbing noise from dash - honda finally heard this one, they insulated the dash pieces with foam/felt insulation and this noise is gone too.
door sill trim ill-fitting - another case of it not being fitted correctly at the factory; apparently this one was easily fixed.
so all in all i'm happy that i chased these things up, especially the engine one, the airbag one and the seat one. the car is much more enjoyable to drive now and i can finally start thinking about upgrading the audio

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