simply....because we don't use ajax4jsf in our project and this will remove a useless filter (for our project) and also remove the need to include richefaces* jar in our ear files. Maybo also sightly improve performance(?) and reduce the loength odf stacktraces ..lol
IMHO, there should be an option in seam to simply disable the ajax4jsf filter

Pete,
if i remove the richefaces*.jar, i got this exception ,even if we don't use ajax4jsf...:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org.ajax4jsf.component.html.HtmlLoadStyle
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassImpl(Native Method)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:228)
 at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:148)
 at com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader._defineClass(CompoundClassLoader.java:555)
 at com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader.findClass(CompoundClassLoader.java:506)
 at com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader.loadClass(CompoundClassLoader.java:389)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:573)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassImpl(Native Method)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:228)
 at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:148)
 at com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader._defineClass(CompoundClassLoader.java:555)
 at com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader.findClass(CompoundClassLoader.java:506)
 at com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader.loadClass(CompoundClassLoader.java:389)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:573)
 at java.lang.Class.forNameImpl(Native Method)
 at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:163)
 at com.sun.faces.util.Util.loadClass(Util.java:227)
 at com.sun.faces.application.ApplicationImpl.newThing(ApplicationImpl.java:1003)
 at com.sun.faces.application.ApplicationImpl.createComponent(ApplicationImpl.java:539)
 at org.jboss.seam.jsf.SeamApplication.createComponent(SeamApplication.java:91)
 at com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener.verifyObjects(ConfigureListener.java:1302)
 at com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener.contextInitialized(ConfigureListener.java:397)
 at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.webapp.WebApp.notifyServletContextCreated(WebApp.java:641)
 at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.commonInitializationFinish(WebApp.java:298)
 at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.webapp.WebApp.initialize(WebApp.java:289)
 at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.webapp.WebGroup.addWebApplication(WebGroup.java:90)
 at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.VirtualHost.addWebApplication(VirtualHost.java:157)
 at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.WebContainer.addWebApp(WebContainer.java:665)
 at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.WebContainer.addWebApplication(WebContainer.java:618)
 at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.install(WebContainerImpl.java:335)
 at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.start(WebContainerImpl.java:551)
 at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.start(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1301)
 at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedApplicationImpl.fireDeployedObjectStart(DeployedApplicationImpl.java:1138)
 at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedModuleImpl.start(DeployedModuleImpl.java:569)
 at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedApplicationImpl.start(DeployedApplicationImpl.java:817)
 at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.startApplication(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:950)
 at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl$1.run(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1484)
 at com.ibm.ws.security.auth.ContextManagerImpl.runAs(ContextManagerImpl.java:3997)
 at com.ibm.ws.security.auth.ContextManagerImpl.runAsSystem(ContextManagerImpl.java:4094)
 at com.ibm.ws.security.core.SecurityContext.runAsSystem(SecurityContext.java:245)
 at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.startApplication(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1489)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:64)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:615)
 at sun.reflect.misc.Trampoline.invoke(MethodUtil.java:62)
 at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor17.invoke(Unknown Source)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:615)
 at sun.reflect.misc.MethodUtil.invoke(MethodUtil.java:265)
 at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invokeMethod(RequiredModelMBean.java:1089)
 at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invoke(RequiredModelMBean.java:971)
 at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.DynamicMetaDataImpl.invoke(DynamicMetaDataImpl.java:231)
 at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.MetaDataImpl.invoke(MetaDataImpl.java:238)
 at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:833)
 at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:802)
 at com.ibm.ws.management.AdminServiceImpl$1.run(AdminServiceImpl.java:1080)
 at com.ibm.ws.security.util.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:118)
 at com.ibm.ws.management.AdminServiceImpl.invoke(AdminServiceImpl.java:973)
 at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.AdminServiceDelegator.invoke(AdminServiceDelegator.java:139)
 at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor57.invoke(Unknown Source)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:615)
 at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.soap.SOAPConnector.invoke(SOAPConnector.java:351)
 at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.soap.SOAPConnector.service(SOAPConnector.java:205)
 at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.soap.SOAPConnection.handleRequest(SOAPConnection.java:55)
 at com.ibm.ws.http.HttpConnection.readAndHandleRequest(HttpConnection.java:680)
 at com.ibm.ws.http.HttpConnection.run(HttpConnection.java:484)
 at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1469)