Dear Askari, based on some observation on Drive Test logs I guess that
1) Even if the new cell has got same neighbors as previous the MS will start AFRESH measuring the ARFCNs in the BA list.
2) Also I have seen that MS actually first measures BCCH RxLevel and then will try to decode the BSIC of the cell. [MS reports Rxlevel of BCCH first in TEMS and then will try to decode BSIC against ARFCNs]
3) To answer your third question, I might have to develop my own MS first 🙂
And BTW, a short neighbor list might add a very little benefit from MS perspective, but it may lead to increased drops in case of overshooting cells etc.