That's a fair point. I envision this as the difference between an electron interacting with the proton or an acid reacting with the base vs me touching my keyboard. Do you feel there's a difference there?

I don't know what consciousness is or how to talk about it. But at a basic level I don't believe there is a category of phenomena separate from the physical world or inaccessible to the scientific method; and if there were I don't know how you would say anything meaningful about them. I am however willing to believe that rocks are not conscious.

Exactly. Perception shapes everything. Even precision experiments are filtered through our minds. What we call 'real' is really just what we can measure, interpret, and act on.