Just received reports back last week and it is an RR.
In the memo letter to the editor addressing reviewer comments, is it ok to respond to suggestions by writing almost exactly what I am writing in the revised paper?
Any thoughts will be much appreciated. My advisor is away . . .
That seems annoying to read. You can quote yourself if it's brief, or just reference the section. "R1 expresses legitimate concerns about the witch-hunting on page 7. I have rewritten that section to address those concerns." Maybe put in a one-sentence summary of what you did.
The more senior I've become, the more likely I am to argue against reviewers' comments. It hasn't hurt me, and I think it's actually helped the average quality of the end-product, but I'm also at a point where any individual publication is less likely to affect my career.
If this is your first R&R, do exactly what Mellony said. And if you do decide to not change something, be sure to oversell how much you changed the other things R2 recommended and talk about how the thing you chose not to change isn't really a big deal anyway because the other points improved the quality of the article so much.