I meant the non-modifier keys. When some OS feature redefines a key,
low-level events will not know that, and will still consider the key
labeled 'a' as 'a', even though I might have switched the keyboard to
another language, where the key labeled 'a' actually produces a
completely different character, say, 'ש'.
From where I stand, that would be a feature, in some carefully chosen
cases. When I’m switched to a layout where the ‘a’ key produces an ‘ф’
character, or an ‘α’, or a ち, I’d still want Ctrl+this key to behave
as C-a.