It might be simpler than all that. Note that the ZIP algorithm copies
bytes verbatim until there are enough repeated strings to allow the
creation of tags which allow for compression. With a small and random
input like a signature and tiny literal, there may not be enough to
compress in the sense of using any tags, so the entire packet is valid
"compressed" data although no compression actually occurs.
Even gzip -9 on the extracted signature and literal packets result in most
of the text being visible. If the data isn't really compressible, it is
passed verbatim.
It manages to compress when I use "This is a test of this thing", which
apparently has enough repeated strings (and even "This is a t").
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