Card_mod theme buttons in footer no longer centers

Configuration Frontend
1

using a plain entities card with

    footer:

      type: buttons
      entities:
        - entity: input_boolean.loop_sound_bite
          name: Loop Soundbite
        - entity: script.play_sound_bite
          name: Speel soundbite
          icon: mdi:play

and a card_mod_theme for the footers system wide like

    card-mod-card-yaml: |
      hui-buttons-header-footer $ hui-buttons-base:
        $ : |
          .ha-scrollbar {
            justify-content: space-evenly;
            height: 50px;
            align-content: center;
            margin: -8px 0px 0px 0px;
            --ha-chip-background-color: var(--primary-color);
            --ha-chip-text-color: var(--card-background-color);
            --paper-item-icon-active-color: red;
            --secondary-text-color: var(--card-background-color);
          }

      hui-buttons-header-footer $ hui-buttons-base $ .ha-scrollbar ha-chip:
        $: |
          .mdc-chip {
            border: 1px solid green;
            border-radius: var(--ha-card-border-radius) !important;
          }
          .mdc-chip__ripple {
            border-radius: var(--ha-card-border-radius) !important;
          }

made the buttons in the footer appear in style and center them if more than 1.
currently on new card_mod 3.2.3 and HA 2023.10 beta 6 I am seeing the mod become a bit unstable (seems not to kick in on reload, and require a view reload), and, it does not apply the justify-content: space-evenly correctly, even if I add !important there.

after a reload of theme, seems the mod does not work at all:

Scherm­afbeelding 2023-10-03 om 10.59.06
Scherm­afbeelding 2023-10-03 om 10.59.061236×882 64.4 KB

next I reload frontend:

Scherm­afbeelding 2023-10-03 om 10.59.21
Scherm­afbeelding 2023-10-03 om 10.59.211036×776 101 KB

and styles are applied with the exception of the space-evenly.

do we need new/different settings nowadays?

2

this would have to do with another mod I set on those footer buttons:

    style:
      hui-buttons-header-footer $ hui-buttons-base $ .ha-scrollbar:
        ha-chip:
          .: |
            ha-chip:nth-child(2) {
              --card-mod-icon: mdi:{{'stop' if is_state('script.play_sound_bite','on')
                                     else 'play'}}

to change the icon of the second button obviously. Without that the space is every proportioned:

Scherm­afbeelding 2023-10-03 om 17.20.38
Scherm­afbeelding 2023-10-03 om 17.20.381086×256 44.7 KB

so, the question now really is: how to combine the 2 mods for the footer…