Steven: the last line of Rule 36 is extremely important: "... it is player's responsibility to make his intentions clear...". This has important consequences: a) if player intends one thing but his actions aren't clear, it's not the TD's responsibility to figure out what the player wants to do, but instead to make the best ruling he can based on the actual actions. b) if the player gets a ruling that isn't what he intended, it's the player's fault, not the TD's. This rule was adopted at the 2009 Summit to clarify these responsibilities.
As to your examples: Note that every one of them is a non-standard action. SO, whenever a player decides to do anything other than standard action, the player is responsible for whatever ruling occurs, it's not the TD's duty to try and figure out the intention behind the non-standard behavior. Maybe the player will get the ruling he wants, maybe he won't. What the TD will try and do is encourage proper behavior so that all players at the table will know what is expected.
Imagine if you had all 3 of these actions, one after the other at a given table... you'd put a stop to that quickly, no doubt. So why even tolerate one exception?
As to how far off a call amount can be, personally I'd say zero. Would I tolerate an "almost" call... it would have to be one small chip off, otherwise I'd probably favor calling that a min raise, the player will be more careful next time. As to whether the player can put the call amount out in a series of moves... a) absolutely if he declares raise then says "here's my call amount first"... b) otherwise if he has a stack of 100's in his hand and rapid-drops 3 in quick succession then I might accept that if I was in a favorable mood and felt it was unmistakable what the player was doing... c) but if he wants to toss a 100, pause, then go back to his stack and toss another 100... then pause.... forget it, he has min-raised IMO.
Now, notice that you have a range of opinion on this thread. That's to be expected because the player is making non-standard action here. Non-standard action is going to be whatever the TD declares it to be, and it's the player's responsibility if the TD rules it other than what is intended.
Great post, thanks alot!