>> Everything depends upon what is meant by “faith”. &etc
A profitable and well-written post. Thank you!
You're welcome. I think that the Catholic Church's concept of purgatory is a good one, from the standpoint that it ensures that mostly-good people and mostly-bad people alike will be rewarded for doing good and punished for doing evil. Without such a concept, the only people who will benefit from doing good will be those who would otherwise be "almost" good enough. Anyone who was either already good enough, or nowhere near good enough, may as well not bother.
My own philosophy is that Judgment will consist not of God's reading through the book of each people's lives, tallying up a score, and seeing whether that yields a passing grade, but rather in putting each person to a test (or series of test) which they must pass to achieve salvation. Those of pure heart will pass it easily. Those who are evil at heart will fail the test, no matter how many times they take it, unless or until they cleanse the evil from their hearts through repentance. Sinful behavior is an obstacle not to salvation not because it will affect God's final tally, but rather because it will harm a person's character in ways that will make the final test more difficult.
In my view, what matters is not whether one has sinned, but rather the extent to which one is prone to sin. Past sin is mainly significant because someone who "gets away with" sinful behavior will as a consequence be disposed to engage in more of it, thus making the final Test more difficult.