Avoid naming container / region on nested composite component children with include - jsf

Question

I'm having problems rerendering the relevant parts of my view without having to resort to #form or the like.
I have a composite component like this:
wrapper.xhtml:
<!DOCTYPE composition PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:c="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"
xmlns:cc="http://java.sun.com/jsf/composite"
xmlns:rich="http://richfaces.org/rich"
xmlns:a4j="http://richfaces.org/a4j">
<cc:interface componentType="compositeComponent">
<cc:attribute required="false" name="foo" />
</cc:interface>
<cc:implementation>
<a4j:region>
<h:panelGroup id="content" layout="block" styleClass="my-wrapper">
<h1>TITLE</h1>
<c:forEach items="#{element.children}" var="element">
<ui:include src="element.xhtml">
<ui:param name="level" value="0" />
</ui:include>
</c:forEach>
</h:panelGroup>
</a4j:region>
</cc:implementation>
</ui:composition>
and element.xhtml:
<!DOCTYPE composition PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:c="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"
xmlns:cc="http://java.sun.com/jsf/composite"
xmlns:rich="http://richfaces.org/rich"
xmlns:a4j="http://richfaces.org/a4j">
<h:outputLabel styleClass="level-#{level}">
#{element.label}
<a4j:ajax event="click"
listener="#{controller.updateElements(element)}"
execute="#this" render="#region" />
</h:outputLabel>
<c:if test="#{element.someTest}">
<c:forEach items="#{element.children}" var="element">
<ui:include src="element.xhtml">
<ui:param name="level" value="#{level + 1}" />
</ui:include>
</c:forEach>
</c:if>
</ui:composition>
Now the problem is, although I'm setting an <a4j:region> around the wrapper, and setting the render expression in the children to #region, it still only renders the single clicked upon child on rerender.
I searched the web and SO but couldn't find a reason for this, does the include implicitly create a namespace or naming container (which would be treated as a region?)? Couldn't find anything like this, but if so, how would I avoid this? I want the entire wrapper (and only that, not #form or #all or the like) to be rerendered upon clicking on a child.
What am I missing?

Answer 1

#region is only used for execution. The <a4j:region> doesn't generate any HTML so you cannot use it for rendering.