[AJFenix]

Sam,

There are times when it would could be appropriate to do so with any of those hands.
With KQ and AJ, being dominated isn't nearly as bad as you may think it is when you are have that momentum. You can't only consider absolute hand value in this situation. Lets say you have KQ on the button facing a CO raise and you reraise. Lets say he calls you with AQ or AK. Both of you will be whiffing the flop completely the majority of the time, but you are going to be the one putting pressure on him, forcing him to make a hand, and pushing him off of the best hand. Some players may even opt to pitch these hands against you preflop, given they will be OOP for one. Same thing goes for when he has a small pocket pair trying to crack your perceived "big pair". He whiffs and folds his hand, which was actually good unimproved. You cut his implied odds drastically, and make calling a mistake for him in many of those spots. You are forcing your opponent to make decisions, and when he is forced to make decisions he is given the opportunity to make mistakes.

Talking about the other hands, something like 55 on the small blind facing a button raise is going to have pretty bad implied odds as his raising range is so wide and its going to be pretty rare that he is actually going to have something big when you have something bigger, and on top of that you are going to be playing OOP where its much harder to get paid off when you do hit. You are also going to end up folding the best hand a ton, even if you aren't necessarily check/folding every flop you don't spike a set on. Reraising = you are forcing him to make his hand, you are putting him at a decision and therefor letting him make mistakes, and you create more profitable situations for yourself while bettering your overall situation.

Also, I wanted to comment that "opening up" doesn't mean you have to drastically increase your VPIP and try to play maniac/LAG. Players that have "opened up" are willing to reraise more preflop, spot and make use of a larger amount of profitable situations (which ties into preflop), are capable of taking unconventional lines with hands that other players wouldn't consider, remain deceptive and creative, and do a better job of factoring in all the details when it comes into their decisions, among other things. Players that are going to start reraising light without taking into consideration the important factors, and/or making mistakes in the situations they get themselves into are going to be costing themselves a lot of money.