thank you so much, bob99, for this thoughtful reply and research.
i think you are right all the way. i have pretty much come to the same conclusion. with PG’s initial response to this thread and the fact that Cubase (another steinberg product) does have a customizable command for this function, it seemed hopeful for a minute that this might be possible. that’s why i was targeting the / key, i customized Cubase for my Mac in this way.
but i believe i have exhausted all the possibilities unless PG has other suggestions.
if not, then i would make a feature request for a future version.
thank you for taking the time to explore this with me