A question about the <D> delay command

It's not that simple. You might notice that the space used in the dialogue bank is not byte for byte. This is because, to save space, the text as printed is stored in two-character "chunks" (for lack of a better term). Any odd behavior of the text as printed is likely related to that.

Again, the point is moot since any problems with delay tags can be easily resolved by using them <D>like so.