haven’t got a clue about mechanical keyboards, but I have strong tastes in terms of aesthetics
My quick take is that if you can afford to get a second keyboard if you don’t like this one, get this one simply because you like the look.
It isn’t clear from the image on the ATK page you linked, but I believe those keys display what they are (Esc, tab, qwerty) on the side facing the user rather than the top.
From the videos you’ve seen, you’re probably aware that there are several different ways for the keys to feel and sound. This might be a perfect fit for you, or maybe you decide you miss something about your current keyboard. If you haven’t tried a couple different styles, it can be hard to pin down exactly what you want.
As far as the software goes, the keyboard will almost certainly function without software, but you might not be able to control the lights/illumination display.
I blame the defunding of reliable curators. The good gets lost in the torrent of mediocre content. This isn’t just music, but videos, news, art, and so on. Most anything that both craftsmen and amateurs can produce is now easily accessible to everyone everywhere. In addition to the old method of producing albums where the band had to go to some location and work on it as a regular job, and with the label sending in extra musicians, equipment, professionals and such, there used to be trusted critics.
Historically, we had a short list of vetted reviewers who could point us towards the best stuff without the need to wade through the rest. Even if it turned out that your aesthetics did not match that of a given critic, you could probably see why such critics held their opinions and could quickly locate a critic whose tastes did align with yours. Now we have a billion fake review sites run by the companies and/or families of those being reviewed. They are not trustworthy. A person is left to try everything on their own and we often run out of time looking for ‘good’ and settle on ‘good enough’.
I used to visit communities like you did, then I took an arrow in the knee.
But no, seriously, if you don’t like the how people are talking, don’t bother going there. I don’t know people who use Steam’s community hubs for actual community. I see them getting used for info/joke sharing about their given games, but not for social bonding. Personally, I like the guides. Sometimes I search the discussions for a piece of information on an issue that I’m hoping someone else has already encountered and worked around. That’s about it.
That said, I generally don’t mind that people make memes. If it makes them happy, then good for them! If other people get a chuckle, that’s even better. For me – and like my opening line – any amusement quickly turns to eye rolls as the same things get repeated over and over and were never very funny from the start.
I was going to suggest this first blog post to give you an idea about some basic types, but it linked to the second blog and I thought you might like that, too. Mostly, they give you an idea of the terms and language used to describe keyboard stuff. There are other sources, sure, but the first blog post seemed like a fair write-up for a beginner, so I stuck with hiros even though their main goal is selling products (but hey, they are kinda cool artsy products).