this is not intended to be an exercise in solipsism, just to save you the
trouble of replying where it's unnecessary - sorry!

I wrote:

 - is there an efficient way I can copy all the static content elements
except my marker element, which I replace with the contents of the variable?

yes: it's on Dave Pawson's site as the first example for xsl:copy -

<xsl:template match="*">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="replaceMe">
    <xsl:value-of select="$myVariable"/>
  </xsl:template>

But there's no need to put it into a variable, I could just use another
template, no?

Tom


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