Yeah you raise some good points, but as you mentioned here it doesn't really have anything to do with the types of switches. It's just that most of these non-standard keyboards happen to be mechanical.
In my comment I am mainly talking about the pros/cons of switching to mechanical switches.
The cost of mechanical keyboard is far lower in low quantities.
I feel to say about "mechanical keyboard vs standard keyboard", these niche ergonomic keyboards should be considered.
I only recently discovered these weird keyboards. So I figure that's as good an excuse as any to extol these benefits. (And complain about how weird a standard keyboard is!).
Capital required to come up with a keyboard design is a much more minor factor.
My perfect keyboard would have an ErgoDox layout, QMX driver, scissor switches w. chiclet keys, and individually-addressable LEDS.
I can only get three of these four things, and I can live with that.
Yes.
Or at least, "mechanical keyboards" is broad enough that it also includes ortholinear or column-staggered designs, as well as split keyboards. (i.e. I mean a more narrow "some mechanical keyboards are much better than non-mechanical" rather than arguing "mechanical keyboards are always better than non-mechanical").
Typical keyboards have staggered-rows, and are asymmetrical. (The distance from left-ctrl to index finger is different from right-ctrl to index finger). The biggest downside of this design is it encourages heavy usage of the pinky finger, as well as stretching fingers, and moving the hand from home row. Compare the number of keys relegated to the pinky finger vs the much stronger thumb.
The customizability of these keyboards affords further techniques to reduce hand movement and pinky usage.
I'm happy to take the trade-off of a slightly longer travel time for the benefit of reduced usage of the pinky finger, reduced hand movement.
These benefits are orthogonal to the switches being mechanical. Maybe it's easier to come up with these designs by making use of mechanical switches. But almost all the "ortholinear or column-staggered, split" keyboards I'm aware of are mechanical.