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I'm pretty sure this problem is specific to Macs; other OSes allow modifiers from one keyboard to affect keys pressed on other devices.

https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/document.html.en#implicit

"When you are using multiple keyboards, modifier keys are shared with all keyboards."

Hmm that might be a configuration issue, my combinations work as expected. I'm in Vim pretty much the entire day so if key combinations didn't work this would be a non-starter

That might be a killer in EMCAS, but you can type in Vim all day without any chords except the shift key. I don't understand the reference in op as if Vim required tons of control keys like EMACS either.