>could not understand what these dummy email send step making the difference.
Any background step could do the trick. Just a step/task that calls a method that does not have any code. Better than using the "dummy email". Well, now when you have the dummy email step in place, what about adding the whole logic into that step? 
You simply don't want to "hide" this kind of important functionality into the exit - especially when there seems to be some issues with the container element values etc.
Kind regards,
Karri