I don’t know VASL, and assume Center on Opponent’s Moves won’t work because you have those invisible pieces moving around that you don’t want indicated, is that right?
If I’m wrong, and Center on Opponent’s Moves is on, but just won’t trigger with all the actions you’re after… then you could have those actions also run a Place Marker over the piece, then have the 'keystroke to apply to the marker piece" be a delete key. Hope that makes sense, but I think that would then have any action draw the focus to that piece (if Center on Opponent’s Moves is always on).
I haven’t tested this, just throwing it out there. Hopefully though you can get something more like what you’re after.