I see it more as similar to the hotrod/car enthusiast scene. A certain crowd loves to spend time customizing their cars. Mechanical keyboards seem similar to me. It's just a fun activity.
A friend of mine got into it, designing custom PCBs, designing layered laser cut acrylic or 3d printed cases. They've made 5-6 keyboards. Some small, some split, some angular, the latest one is curved. They sent me one of their designs and it was fun to build one, though expensive. Total cost with all tools etc for me at least was ~$700. But hey, I'm an overpaid engineer and I a the keyboard 8-12hrs a day. I've been using it since I built it (18 months or so)
A friend of mine got into it, designing custom PCBs, designing layered laser cut acrylic or 3d printed cases. They've made 5-6 keyboards. Some small, some split, some angular, the latest one is curved. They sent me one of their designs and it was fun to build one, though expensive. Total cost with all tools etc for me at least was ~$700. But hey, I'm an overpaid engineer and I a the keyboard 8-12hrs a day. I've been using it since I built it (18 months or so)