A rant about mechanical keyboards

I’ve owned mechanical keyboards since the early 90s. It was a rebranded variant of the Model M. I’m no stranger to mechanical keyboards so I know why they resonate with so many people. The TVSE Gold here in India later became the affordable, no-nonsense mechanical keyboard for a long time. There was even a USB version. Now, they’ve replaced the Cherry MX keys with cheaper alternatives. I owned two of the Cherry MX ones, one of them was a PS2 version. Mechanical keyboards became a thing again in the past 15 years or so, but look at how things have devolved.

I do not know why people need wireless keyboards. There are going to be some wires on your desk and that’s okay. Why is every mechanical keyboard wireless? Why should a keyboard have a battery, or lights, or a screen?

Years ago, I bought my wife a Keychron K2. It’s a nice TKL keyboard, but again, it comes with a battery in it and I have not once seen my wife use it wirelessly. She, like millions of others use their keyboards in front of a PC or laptop inches away. No one is sitting on their couches using their wireless mechanical keyboards. HTPCs died in the early 2010s.

I gave my dad the TVSE Gold and my cousin a 60% Epomaker one. I’ve been using a split membrane keyboard for the past year, alongside an AmazonBasics membrane keyboard. Both are barely average keyboards, and I was hoping to buy a mechanical keyboard for myself, but it’s not easy to find the right one. It is why I’m typing this post.

Wireless keyboards with batteries are one problem, then there’s the problem of overly thick models - presumably made that way to pack in the battery. What I’ve narrowed down to are purely wired, low-profile keyboards with function keys. The cheapest product I can find locally is a Royal Kludge N80. There are a few decent reviews and it costs about $90 in India. Why are mechanical keyboards so expensive? I don’t want lights, or knobs, or screens on my keyboard - just something I can type on at a 130 words per minute!