look at the begining of 168 the narrirator explains that they rescue inoue and escape. The reason i would imagine for them cutting it out is because we would then have an ep where its just inoue screaming "i reject!" bringing everyone back to life. then have that person scream "zomg inoue!" it wouyld be boring as hell so ya... moving on.
i wish instead of the whole group going back home that they would say that they were switching to see how soul society and the human world are doing without having them around and whats going on. instead of well they are back home...how did they get back home anyways?
Don't you understand? The point of everyone going to Hueco Mundo was to rescue Inoue, which they did in episode 167. In 168 you can hear the captains discussing the incident, and that there were no casualties when they returned.r r It's not filler, they finished up what they needed to do in Hueco Mundo.