Automator

I recreated and implemented your scripts, and I'm 99% sure the problem is best characterized as user error.

Let me explain.

Consider keystroke as being dumb. It just simulates the keypresses corresponding to the characters in the string, and does so as quickly as it can.

I can reproduce your problem by holding the modifier keys longer than needed.

What's happening is that you:

1. Hold the modifier keys
2. Type the appropriate character to invoke the script
3. Release the character key
4. Release the modifier keys

What I think is happening is that the script is firing off immediately after you type the character key (step 3) and it is blindly typing the characters before the modifier keys are released (step 4), and so the application is interpreting it as a sequence of further modifier keystrokes, most specifically the option key is probably leading to the spurious characters.

The results do vary a bit, depending on the frontmost application at the time the actions are invoked. The only consistent way I could get it to work is to be consciously brief in how long I hold the modifier keys for.

I don't see a simple way around this. It is possible to invoke keystroke with modifiers, but I can't see how to keystroke without modifiers, regardless of what the keyboard is doing.

I'm missing something here.

I see your scripts, and understand what you're trying to do. But I can't see how your scripts translate into the second part of your post showing the output. I have no way of knowing which keystroke/script you executed to know what you expect to see vs. what you actually see.

I get there's some inconsistency between different invocations, but I can't tell which one is being called at any moment to be able to triage this.