Host control/alt keys not being released by VM [KDE host, WIN 10 guest, VMWare 14.1.2 ]

Looking for any tech help. I'm not quite sure what to try at this point.

**Problem:**

My machine is a RHEL 7.5 box^1. After powering on or resuming my VM (a Win 10 x64 guest), after the guest gets focus, anytime I go back to my host os, I cannot use my control key or alt key. Other keys may be messed up as well. "Go back" to my host has meant, moving the mouse away as well as trying to release the focus using my ctrl + alt hot key combo. I am running VM tools 10.2.5 (I need to double-check version, but know they are >= 10.2).

Making this more infuriating, this only happens on KDE (KDE 4.14.8) and not on MATE. However, I'm a heavy KDE user.

**Temporary Solution:**

After I return focus to my host, I run "setxkbmap" from a terminal. Everything is fine, until I use my VM again. I have not had any such trouble with VirtualBox, or using VMWare in MATE.

**What I've tried:**

I've tried messing around with the various "hot keys" options in VMWare's settings. but nothing makes a difference.

I've placed "xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true" in my "~/.vmware/config" but this has not worked. I've also tried placing the nokeycodeMap line in my system's "/etc/vmware/config" file, but also doesn't seem to have an affect.

There is no difference in the Player vs the Workstation.

Any ideas?

1] local admins officially support MATE only, do not offer support for KDE. I'm on my own with it.