BDA - Nif exporter unrelenting

I didn't preserve the _0 models in the same scene as the _1 models, so I had to go back one version to the _0 models I initially exported. Since 3ds Max thinks preserving skin weights is stupid, I couldn't import/export/merge one scene's models into the other. Merging resulted in either the existing or imported models losing skin data or, if I merged the skeleton, the skin data was preserved for what imported, but broken for everything else because the "new" bones replaced the "old" bones (They're the same bones!). "Save" and "Load" for the skin modifier did nothing whatsoever. Well, "Save" did indeed save the envelopes, but "Load" didn't load them; presumably because of the same new/old bones thing.

Oh, and Skin Wrapping 1 over 0 didn't work.

Anyways, I buckled down and remade the _1 torso models. I started by welding all vertices within .1 units of each other on the _0 (the only vertices that close were between the glowing panels on the chest) and followed up with scaling it all out, again. Upon export, I expected everything to go well, like on the female armor. By merely writing that last sentence, you already know that didn't occur. Still off by 4.

Here's the weird bit. If I do not weld, the vertex count is 3214. If I weld, the vertex count is 3319.
I tried exporting as .obj and importing that into nifskope, but the _1 has 7 extra vertices. Exporting and importing a .3ds kept the same vertex count, but I do not have a Skin Instance or Dismember modifier, so the imported mesh is only good for a static model (and probably not even that).

*sigh*

EDIT:

I've tried putting everything into one smoothing group using the Smooth and the Smoothing Groups section of Editable Poly. While the poly count did go down, the _0 model has 3 more vertices than the _1. This would have been a suboptimal solution given that parts of the armor do require different smoothing groups to look correct in game.