[Patentpractice] Non-urgent curious question about examiner's statement

[Patent Lawyer]

I have a final office action with a 103 rejection over prior art reference D1.

In comments on our earlier arguments, the examiner says:

“D1 is obvious suggestively, if not anticipatory, of the claimed subject matter.”

He then proceeds to lay out a 103 rejection.

I don’t recall seeing this phrase (“obvious suggestively, if not anticipatory”) before.

Is this just another way of saying: “notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 …”?

Thoughts?
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