Reply To: style sheets not behaving consistently

Your imgur link is not working so we can’t see your example. Post an example of your issues and we can see if we can help.
You can make girds for each text frame. Use TEXT FRAME OPTIONS and then the BASELINE OPTIONS tab and click USE CUSTOM BASELINE GRID. This will allow you to make a grid for each text box.
For returns it is best to use the type you actually need for your purpose, Standard Carriage Return, Soft Return and Discretionary Line Break etc.