Wow. That’s quite the collection. I thought it was a splurge to buy my first Kinesis about 22 years ago. Since upgraded it to the USB (always the Advantage style) and love it.
ergonomic keyboard design surely is begging someone to write their thesis on the subjects involved with figuring out the difference between individual preference and the non empirical / subjective measures of preference and selection priority.
I have always believed that the problem with ergonomic keyboard design could be solved for a majority of cases with one single design, optimised over a number of generations rapidly in about 3 years (or a more optimal period allowing you to iterate retail cycles and customer reviews and reactions as well as observations in actual use) and make a excellent long term investment for a relatively small amount of capital.
the capital amount of course wouldn't be small in every individual view of small, but I can definitely imagine the required capital investment can be kept in check within less than -$3mm and return overall very well real inflation adjusted over a very decent length of time.
(i tend to presume the existence of very strong IP law knowledge in the design and development and management team - this i would like to be overlapping roles - but about one third of the capital in any project like this would be allocated by me to legal and IP rights protection in any event because you don't want to be responsible for that with only product development experience no matter how well educated in IP law and practice you are . Product liability and environmental and ethical concerns would receive a significant budget today as well , especially when everything is outsourced (Logitech since 30 years effectively in the beginning ...)
I think this isn't a one size fits all thing. Hand sizes are different. Some appear to be more prone to RSI. Some use emacs. Might be some placebo effect as well. Happy to be proven wrong.
