Sentence Correction

I've read through a lot of cases and threads on COMMA + -ING, but still have a few questions left and not solved. Hope there's anyone else who could bring an end to it. Thanks!

(I will just quote a really small part of OG analysis below, hope it will not violate the rules on the forum)

Questions and analysis below:

question 1: Is it possible that COMMA + -ING could serve as a noun modifier.
It seems so in OG.

All the following ones make sense when considered as a noun modifier, WHILE it's also ok as an adverbial modifier!
OG12 SC 30 --- comma + protecting (1) noun & adverbial modifier
OG13 SC 48 --- comma + covering
OG13 SC 66 --- comma + absorbing

OG13 SC 62 --- Rivaling + comma + Subject (2) noun & adverbial
OG13 SC 69 --- Affording + comma + Subject
OG13 SC 25 --- Subject, having amassed, Main Verb (3) noun & adverbial

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in (1), all comma+-ING's seem to modify the preceding noun as well as the subject+verb pair.
OG12-SC-30 --- sheilds were essential items, protecting warriors ...
OG13-SC-48 --- the landlocked Caspian is actually ... lake on Earth, covering ...
OG13-SC-66 --- the Army Corps proposed ... to shore a breakwater that would act as a buffer, absorbing ...

in (2) & (3), they, if possible, modify the SUBJECT of the clause it's touching as well as the subject+verb/the whole clause.

question 2: in (1), is it ok just because of these special verbs as BE, ACT as, etc. ?
I don't know yet.

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but in some Official Explanation, GMAT seems to admit that it's a possibility of using COMMA + -ING as a noun modifier ONLY modifying the preceding noun \ object, not a subject.

For instance,
1. OG13-SC-25, when analyzing an incorrect choice D:
Neuroscientists have amassed ... and ... from birth to adulthood, now drawing ...
OE: The final descriptor, now drawing conclusions, ... and seems to modify adulthood.

OG does consider the preceding noun adulthood as a grammatical possible choice for comma + drawing.

2. OG13-SC-35, when analyzing B,
the pilot JC held seventeen ... records, earning them at ....
OE: Here, the word earning takes the pilot herself, not the records, as its subject. However, earning is close to the records, not to Jacqueline Cochran, making this sentence hard to process.

However, we don't see any of those above really existing in official correct choices.


question 3: So how should we treat this problem?
i.e.
Will it be OK for COMMA+-ING to modify just a preceding noun, in formal written English and/or in GMAT?

1) if not, then why?
2) and if so, what's the difference between a NONCOMMA+-ING and a COMMA+-ING noun modifier?

just to put one more for your reference,
if in OG13 SC-35, it will be ok for a COMMA+-ED (, earned ...) to modify its preceding noun (records),
why couldn't a COMMA+-ING do so for a sake of understanding, like that maybe the whole modifier is too long to understand easily if not moved apart by a comma, or something like that?[/b][/i]
in many other aspects, they are working just like each other.