How do I make URL rewrite work with web.Release.config transform?

I have a web.config rewrite rule specified to move all traffic to https. The rule works, but I don't want SSL required while I am debugging. I have a bunch of web.release.config transformations being done already that work on publish so I decided to put a rewrite rule in there. The problem is that the rewrite rule isn't being transformed like the rest of the settings. Here is the web.config setup:

<system.webServer>
    <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>

    <rewrite></rewrite>
</system.webServer>

And here is the transformation being done:

  <system.webServer>
<rewrite>
  <rules>
    <rule name="Redirect HTTP to HTTPS" stopProcessing="true">
      <match url="(.*)"/>
      <conditions>
        <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="^OFF$"/>
      </conditions>
      <action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" redirectType="SeeOther"/>
    </rule>
  </rules>
</rewrite></system.webServer>

If I just copy the rewrite rule to the web.config it works fine. Does anyone out there have any ideas why web.Release.config transforms aren't working for only this section?

Transformation will only happen if you put proper xdt attributes on the elements that need to be transformed. Try adding an xdt:Transform attribute to your release config:

<system.webServer xdt:Transform="Replace">
    <!-- the rest of your element goes here -->
</system.webServer>

That will tell the transformation engine that the entire system.webServer element from Web.config needs to be replaced with the one from Web.Release.config.

The transformation engine will silently ignore any elements that do not have xdt attributes.

Obligatory link to MSDN.

Another way to go would be to put in a rewrite condition that negates if you are on localhost:

<conditions>
    <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="localhost" negate="true"/>
</conditions>

<system.webServer>
    <rewrite>
        <rules xdt:Transform="Replace">
            <clear />
            <rule name="Redirect HTTP to HTTPS" stopProcessing="true">
              <match url="(.*)" />
              <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false">
                <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="localhost(:\d+)?" negate="true" />
                <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="127\.0\.0\.1(:\d+)?" negate="true" />
                <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="OFF" />
              </conditions>
              <action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" redirectType="SeeOther" />
            </rule>
        </rules>          
    </rewrite>
</system.webServer>

Summing up other answers here, we discovered the obvious: "Replace" will only replace a node, not "Insert" it (thanks DigitalD for the right track). The rest of our transformation files use replace so we opted for an empty tag in our base web.config (the one that gets transformed).

<system.webServer>
...other tags here that do not get transformed...
<rewrite />
</system.webServer>

Ideally there would be "Overwrite" which would Insert or Replace (or Remove and Insert).