Source tree location hint for writer table issue?

I was wondering if someone more familiar with the source tree layout
than I am might be able to offer a hint as to where I should be
looking for something?

I'm trying to investigate an issue with tables (in Writer) that showed
up when I auto-generated a table, where selecting the table as a whole
shows "read-only" in the status bar and you can't do anything with it
(and about the only way to get rid of it is to select a single cell
and then use Table -> Delete -> Table from the menu).  Nothing about
the table or any of its cells were actually protected in any way
during generation.  I don't think it's an open issue though it's tough
to search for given all the cell and row/column protection related
discussions, but very little for the table as a whole.

I finally worked out that it happens if the last table cell is
vertically merged with row(s) above, and I don't think it's a new
issue (in OO 3.3 too).  A horizontal merge in the final cell seems
fine, and adding a row to the table also clears things up.  My
hypothesis is that there's some code somewhere using the final cell of
the table as a proxy for the state of the entire table, which is no
longer accurate when that cell is hidden by a vertical merge.

Anyway, I've been feeling a bit like was back playing Adventure ("You
are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike") attempting to
deduce where the table status might be getting determined (and even
back-tracking the "read-only" status bar string), and was wondering if
anyone with past experience with the table code might be able to give
me a nudge in a general direction in terms of the source tree?

Thanks.

-- David