The crash is a bug, and of course any bug that crashes Cubase is massive, kind of a binary equation, eh? 
ResonantMind- what happens when you do the commands via their own keystrokes? Anyway, it would be worthwhile to report this in your my steinberg account, with the crash dump, or even a few.
Macros is an old module, and this is an age old workaround too. Takes some experimenting…
One definitely hopes for the long-awaited modernization of the the macro system.