There is code to remove the redundant relations (joins too are relations). But I don't remember exactly where it is. Start looking at query_planner(). The removal of relations should happen before actually planning the joins.
My main point here is researching how difficult it is to add functionality in the planner to allow it to to detect and make decisions on foreign keys present in the outer relation.
I think that if this is added, rest of the work would be much easier. I amy be completely wrong,though.
