Yes that was strange. The RPRF request usually states that the application was "found eligible". In this person's case, I would bet that the eligibility review was already complete, then a senior officer had serious enough reservations about the work experience that they actually reopened the eligibility review and reversed the earlier decision.
Understandably, they have sought a review based on procedural fairness, but I'm not confident that the outcome will be any different, because again the work experience was weak enough that someone actually overrode the initial decision.
It's pretty unfair that they had to waste money on the medical exam before getting the refusal (at least RPRF is refundable).