I feel like an idiot for not seeing this earlier: you’re right; this is the tidal force problem.
More precisely, the lunar tidal acceleration (along the Moon-Earth axis, at the Earth’s surface) is about 1.1 × 10−7 g, while the solar tidal acceleration (along the Sun-Earth axis, at the Earth’s surface) is about 0.52 × 10−7 g, where g is the gravitational acceleration at the Earth’s surface.
In other words, the measured weight of 100-kg human changes from Solar gravity by 5.2 [edit: milli]grams between equitorial solar noon or midnight and equitorial dawn or dusk.
This would only be relevant if you were accelerating relative to the Earth. The scale measures the normal force keeping you at rest relative to the Earth’s center; the force being exerted on the Earth does not change that. (Modulo the orbital-velocity argument, which I’ll respond to separately.)
No, because it pulls you, your scale and the Earth all (very close to) equally.
I feel like an idiot for not seeing this earlier: you’re right; this is the tidal force problem.
In other words, the measured weight of 100-kg human changes from Solar gravity by 5.2 [edit: milli]grams between equitorial solar noon or midnight and equitorial dawn or dusk.
This would only be relevant if you were accelerating relative to the Earth. The scale measures the normal force keeping you at rest relative to the Earth’s center; the force being exerted on the Earth does not change that. (Modulo the orbital-velocity argument, which I’ll respond to separately.)