[mc32]

True enough. It's just not common usage to use "its" as an absolute possessive like that. Whereas other possessives lend themselves to that usage.

In other words it's typically used as a possessive determiner in this construction.

It's somewhat similar to the following:

-Have you eaten?

-Yes, I've.

[yellow_postit]

And thus your first statement gets completely overshadowed by a minor, and to me meaningless, grammatical discussion.