It seems like we are making this more complicated than it needs to be. When objects are selected whether it be individually selected and/or box selected, the next action should be applied to all selected objects regardless if the mouse is inside the bbox or not. I've always been fond of the AutoCad deselect on action paradigm (#3 above) although I'm not opposed to something better if we can figure out what that might be.
It seems like we are making this more complicated than it needs to be. When objects are selected whether it be individually selected and/or box selected, the next action should be applied to all selected objects regardless if the mouse is inside the bbox or not. I've always been fond of the AutoCad deselect on action paradigm (#3 above) although I'm not opposed to something better if we can figure out what that might be.