Before revision:  We demonstrate, through standard numerical analysis and exhaustive numerical experimentation on several complex Poisson and linear elasticity benchmarks, that the new technique enjoys the following properties: well-posedness, robustness  to cut location and material contrast, optimal (h-adaptive) approximation properties, high scalability and easy implementation in large-scale finite element codes.
After revision:  We demonstrate, through standard numerical analysis and exhaustive numerical experimentation on several complex Poisson and linear elasticity benchmarks, that the new technique enjoys the following properties: well-posedness, robustness with respect to cut location and material contrast, optimal (h-adaptive) approximation properties, high scalability and easy implementation in large-scale finite element codes.