Another thing!
Once the purple screen hits, if I list the vmkernel log, it stops right after loading scsi_qla.v01 (the file that we replaced) and states that:
WARNING: VisorFSTar: 968 : Missing directory . for ./etc
RamDisk: 101: Invalid tar image : Boot image is corrupted(0xbad00ce)
Thus obviously pointing to the very same file that we changed.
Is it possible that we made a mistake while packing?
The error points me to thinking that there is a synactical error somewhere but I'm not so clearheaded now to figure it out.
Thanks again.