Can yum be used to remove a single package?

Experiencing a mis-hap in an update, I wanted to back up one step by 
removing the suspected package. I then selected this package with YumEx 
(graphical front-end for yum) in the "installed list" and asked it to be 
removed. To my surprise, the dependency "transitive closure computation" 
concluded that nearly all packages should be removed, even ones not 
clearly related to my purpose (Explanation by the example: cups to be 
removed; after dependency, open-office, kde, gnome, ..., maybe even 
kernel to be removed also).

If the dependency computation used for package removal is the same as 
for inclusion, it seems to me this is a design flaw. For inclusion, it 
is perfectly right to compute a transitive closure and to add all 
packages needed. For deletion, the dependency computation should only 
decrement the "in-use" counter of the referenced package. Only when this 
in-use counter goes to zero should the referenced package be put on the 
removal list. Think of the way the i-nodes are deleted by Unix-like OS 
in presence of hard links.

I admit that in some circumstances this approach can't be totally 
fail-safe. For instance, you included an "independant" package A (not 
referenced nor referencing). You then install package B referencing A. 
If you remove B, you also remove A. But this situation can be quite 
manageable compared to the present flooding strategy capable of 
dramatically damaging a working system.

Configuration:
    yum 3.0.6 (not the most up-to-date but coming from packages FC6)
    yumex 2.0.1
    i686 box running linux 2.6.22

Best regards,
A Littoz