Sometimes there’s a certain thing that redeems an otherwise unusable layout or design. For me, all too often, it’s “it has arrows!”
I don’t generally like 40% boards because I’m shit at remembering what symbols are tucked away on layers, and because I don’t like having to chord a bunch of keys for common (for me) keystrokes. That said, if I see a 40 with arrows, I’m instantly drawn to it, like a moth to a flame, though I know better.
Another example for me is a >7u spacebar.
I know I’ll hate it because it’s got a shit arrow layout, but 9u spacebar? HNNNNG. For example, these are all objectively dumb but I love them
What’s that saving grace that can catch your eye, even if you hate literally everything else about the board? It’s okay too if it’s more of an ineffable something, a certain je ne sais quois, though maybe it will be harder to talk about just what it is then.
For me, ability to source replacement parts and customize as desired. This has led me down the diy split ergo world for ease of designing my own and files for parts being commonly shared.
Dunno why, but this has seemed to permeate as something important to me in many areas of my life. Guitars always had me partial to bolt on necks instead of set necks or neck throughs because I could replace a broken neck easily if something crazy happened. I self-host most of my stuff and develop on my server over ssh because it’s easy to customize the server and replace client devices without being worried about not being able to repair some high spec laptop with no repairability. Also use Neovim because I wanted to know how all the parts fit together and tailor to my liking.
Yeah, it sort of describes the boards I build for myself, but that’s because I like all those things separately, so why not together?!?! Something can be JANKY AF, but as long as there was some intent to be a little different, some part of my weird little heart will love it. I even have a bit of a soft spot for this guy, though to be clear that one is a bridge (or six) too far even for me.
