@ TURIN, saptzae;
Thanks for your responses to my query at
#363.
The blocking "diode" will most likely consist of parallel high power MosFets to reduce voltage drop and hence power dissipation.
My overall impression is that a Li-Ion battery consisting of multiple cells in series must have stringent manufacturing requirements for matching the impedance of each cell over the max/min operating cell temperatures. Only by selecting matching cells will charge/discharge cell balancing have a reasonable chance of keeping the battery as a whole in a stable state.