Key descriptions not working reliably

[superuser-does]

On Emacs 28.1 with native compilation. I'm returning to Emacs after many years with the great ErgoEmacs once again.

M-x always appears as M-x instead of Alt+A. I find the keys are also not rendered reliably in other parts of the mode line. I think I may have used Ergoemacs Status at the time (~2014) but it may or may not be deprecated - not sure if that affects the fact I see M-x. I have also enabled ergoemacs-use-unicode-symbols in case that was affecting display, but M-x still appears that way.

My Emacs setup is very vanilla: fido-vertical-mode is enabled but does not affect it when disabled, and M-x still appears as M-x.

Happy to provide more information if you could advise, in case you require more information.