No SK lounges at RDU (no *A at terminal C) nor IAD. The gate staff at IAD did their best to fix the situation once I got there, but it proved to be a very hard task.

If I had stopped at point 2 or 3 above and then assumed that everything was okay, I would have showed up at the airport and found out that I had no ticket. And since the Swedish EB office would have been very close to closing time, it's not sure that anyone would have been able to issue the ticket in time.
Of course, stopping at point 2 or 3 above and assuming that everything would be okay would mean that I would expect SAS to do their job properly. Good thing I didn't make that assumption, because then I would still be stuck at RDU...