So it seems upstream feels that these files are NOT intended to be end-user configurable files, and have rejected the bug report. Given that, I think I'm just going to drop the bits from the README.Debian entirely. The approach seems a bit hackish anyway, and as you point out, prone to get overwritten on upgrade.
What I might suggest, if you still would like an ability to do this, is that you file a wishlist bug upstream to support keyboard layout customizations, so we can get proper support added for it.
Okay, wow, upstream closed that without delay.
So it seems upstream feels that these files are NOT intended to be end-user configurable files, and have rejected the bug report. Given that, I think I'm just going to drop the bits from the README.Debian entirely. The approach seems a bit hackish anyway, and as you point out, prone to get overwritten on upgrade.
What I might suggest, if you still would like an ability to do this, is that you file a wishlist bug upstream to support keyboard layout customizations, so we can get proper support added for it.