This was one of those questions with no purpose. I too got it wrong because I even didn't look to author's syntax error. I was thinking why none of the...

You are right about the code that uses Identity column. I missed that Identity column was created in a stored procedure. I meant identity that is persisted in original table.

W/o...

I think the code in that article (the one that uses row_number) has one problem. What if:

User A retrieves first page (rows 1-25 in name order)

User B deletes one or...