How to: copy records from one table to another?

Sorry, for the basic question, but I'm not sure if there are bug(s) in
pgAdmin, or just that I'm clueless. (My money lies on the latter!)

Imagine the scenario where you are adding a feature to a product that
requires adding some new rows to a configuration table, and as part of the
patch you need to replicate a bunch of record from your development
database to your production databases.

You'd think there'd be a number of options, e.g.,

1. After doing a "View/Edit..." | "Filter by", select the displayed
records, click "copy" to get them on to the clipboard, then go to the
production database, do a "View/Edit..." on the corresponding table, and
paste. But, in my case, I need my auto-sequenced "id" column to be omitted
(so it gets re-generated in the new table), so perhaps this isn't the right
choice. Even worse, over the years, my database tables (auto-created via
Hibernate used in a Java Servlet) no longer have the same column order.
(Question: is there no way that copy-and-paste between tables can consider
the column names so copying between (int id,int feature_id,text name) and
(int id,text name,int feature_id) is possible?)

2. Or, I could right-click on the table and use Import/Export..."
(Question: is there a way to filter the records that will get exported?
Or is there a way to trigger import/export on the results of a
"View/Edit..." | "Filter by"?). However, here the issue is the columns no
longer have the same order (e.g., (int,int,text) vs (int,text,int)) so
"Import/Export..." fails. (Question: Is that not what the "Header" toggle
is supposed to do? I see that enabling it during export *adds* a header
to the export files, but shouldn't enabling it during import cause it to be
used to identify the order?). This method has the attraction that I can
use the "Columns" tab to exclude one of the columns from my export (i.e.,
my auto-sequenced "id" column).

3. Or, I could do a "Backup..." and then a corresponding "Restore..." , but
I noticed that there the generated file contains CREATE DATABASE bits of
code even though the "Include CREATE DATABASE" toggle in the Backup..."
dialog is set to "No" (Question: bug, or my misunderstanding?). But I'm
guessing that a backup/restore will generally do a complete and utter
restore, rather than just moving some data.

4. Other options?

So, what is the best/simplest way to copy data between tables, given the
possibility that some/all might apply?

- The columns may be in a different order in different databases
- One column might need be left blank
- I only want to copy some of the records

Cheers,
Dave