I can clarify that the problem behavior is a likely software bug. I’ve examined my database schema. I have confirmed that, consistent with Enable global tables mode?=Yes, there are *no* tables named wp_<blog_id>_em_* for my 14 subsites; there are only tables named wp_em_*. (Exception: there is one subsite, ID 10, from an old setup that is no longer used.) And also consistent with Enable global tables mode?=Yes, all events are recorded in wp_em_events, with the appropriate ID set in the blog_id column.
Any advice on this likely software defect is appreciated.