Window behavior

I'm only now getting into X1, but something I encountered months ago is still bothering me.

I'm a long-time Sonar user from pre Sonar v1.0.  This whole switch to docking/windows has me flummoxed.  Much of the time I don't want to send something to the multidock - I want it closed, period.  

I open a plugin and have the plugin interface pop us as a window like I want.  Now, I've made my changes and I want to close the plugin window or do some other function.

In 8.5 all the way back to version 1, I could hit the windows standard Ctrl-F4 to close the active subwindow (the plugin interface) and leave the project open.  In X1, depending on what has focus, this does one of several different things.  Alt-F4 should close the entire application, as it does for every other Windows program out there since the early 1990's.  In Cakewalk, if the plugin is the active window (not always apparent).  Alt-F4 and CTRL-F4 seem to do exactly the same thing - close the current window.   If the plugin window is not the active subwindow (hard to tell usually).  Alt-F4 does nothing, Ctrl-F4 does nothing.  
CTRL-F4 should always close the active subwindow.  Alt-F4 should always close the app itself.  There is no way of reassigning these keybindings that I can tell that makes them behave the way they should.  Sometimes CTRL-F4 does one thing, sometimes it does something else.  

Let me be clear, I don't want to dock the plugin interface and then minimize it.  I want to close the interface altogether, and there seems no mouse-free way to accomplish this anymore.  I can assign CTRL-F4 to close the current file, and I can assign ALT-F4 to File-Exit, but still I have no keyboard shortcut to close the active subwindow.  I've also run into multiple scenarios where the newly-active plugin window prevents keystroke assignments from being passed to sonar, such as transport commands, Insert Tempo and other shortcuts.  Until Sonar Track view gets the focus, the transport doesn't respond to spacebar at times.  Again, a gratuitous mouseclick off the plugin is necessary to proceed.

I want a transport function to work no matter what I have visible on the screen.  Is that too much to ask? I'm honestly trying to make the X1 transition with a better attitude, but I am getting shot down at every step just trying to do the most basic things and my frustration level is through the roof.  I can spend 5 minutes trying to track down each new keystroke command that used to take me a half second to accomplish, or I can "cheat" and click three times and note the command I need to 1)relearn 2) re-assign 3) do without because there is no equivalent function