Been there, done that. My story is likewise. Wanted to have a new one with ISO layout. So I went for the Sharkoon Skiller SGK3. After a few minutes the sharp edges of the caps hurt my palms. So I’ve sent it back and gotten the PureWriter with the reds. At first it was fine but the PING… Sooo loud. Tried modding it. Now it rests on a piece of cardboard without case and works fine. So I’ve got me the Royal Kludge RK84 in white. They have TKL called RK87. I usualy liked the design of the old bulky Apple keyboards so I’f figured this will do fine.
Dig this. But the lubing was still fun. And the end result is mediocre at best. I keep telling me that that I’ve not tinkered enough with it. But may be the board isn’t good. Maybe I should get other switches and another set of caps. On the other hand why should anyone blast even more money into it if your gear (in your case the sharkoon) already works fine. Since the RK is hotswap the intention is to play around with the board and not just have it laying around in stock mode for the years to come. I believe the thing that appeals so much to most of us “beginners” is to personalize your experience. You can have a computer assembled from literally millions of combinations of hardware parts. Or you can be super individual and buy one of the 3 existing apple computer types. It is your choice. Use what most appeals to you. You"ve given it a shot and it didn’t work. That’s a bummer. Please don’t be disappointed. Just try something different. There is a whole trash load of different parts that fit together. You don’t need to stay on low profile boards.
It was one of my greatest fears, that all normal keyboards would have a too high profile and will be uncomfy to type on. This fear manifested because I’ve been constatnly using low profile boards since 2002 contantly at work and at home, and the Sharkoon Skiller was a real pain in the ass to use for writing.
It seems that this is a hobby where cash should not matter. Like it is with drugs and hookers.
Why not sell your gear indeed. It it does not fit for you, try to get some cash back and try another one. Preassembled maybe so you can always send it back if it is not ok. And if it appeals to you then contact the manufacturer and try to find out which switches or switch material they’ve been using, which keycap plastic, which board, which case material and so on and go on from there to slowly purchase the parts that you need for your dream board.
I’m at the beginning of this journey and hope I could give you a small advice.
Cheers