Why is prior art ignored?

I am involved in a situation where there was a pending patent I am trying to oppose. I had submitted a number of pieces of prior art/observations to the EPO which were then passed along to the USPTO - but the examiner just stated the info was reviewed without comment and nothing changed.

It got to the point where the patent was awarded but then Europe had a particularly negative opinion on the patent. The "inventor" cancelled the patent and put in a RCE and submitted the prior art along with Europe's strong negative opinion. The reviewer again just signed off as if the data was reviewed without comment and re-awarded the patent. The next set of observations coming through are statements from the inventor which effectively admit that the stated invention doesn't even work as stated in the patent (the basis of the claims) - will this be ignored as well?

This is very upsetting. There is more to the story, but that's the pertinent gist. I'm concerned in that it enables trolling and supports a false marketing narrative. The examiner's actions might also cutoff the effectiveness of an ex parte reexamination.