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I think "sendKeys" should be defined as low level command and there is no other low level command for sending a key. I think "clear" can be left as a high level command as it can be thought as sequence of backspace/delete keys.
Actually, the issue here is that there are no low-level keyboard commands defined. There should be two sendKeys commands: the current high-level one that is already defined, and a low-level one that has yet to be named. The difference is that the low-level one does not automatically clear the modifier keys at the end of the call (Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Meta, etc.), allowing the pressed modifier keys to be "sticky" for use with other actions like mouse events. The high-level sendKeys method does, by definition, release any and all modifier keys at the end of the call.