Re: kbd vs read-key-sequence

[Richard Stallman]

    > How is the encoding of files you edit relevant to this at all?

    It has to match: the event is decoded with keyboard-coding-system whereas
    the define-key statement is decoded via the .emacs file's coding system.

At most, this could mean that the coding system used for .emacs has to
match keyboard-coding-system.  It has nothing to do with any other
file's coding system.

But I don't even see why keyboard-coding-system has to match the coding
system used for .emacs.  Once .emacs is decoded, what you have is
a non-ASCII character, in Emacs representation.  As long as you reliably
get the character you intended, the coding system of .emacs has no
further relevance to how that character is handled.

So I think your contention is not established.