The quality of a photographer may be independent of their camera but I guarantee professional photographers don't use cheap shitty cameras.
Edit: Tradition dictates a car analogy, so - when I bought my first car I couldn't understand why people thought disk brakes were better. I mean, you can lock the wheels with drum brakes so they're equivalent, right? Then when I got my second car with all-round disk brakes I was retrospectively horrified that I'd ever trusted my first car's brakes with anything.
Of course, a year later when I was more confident and started testing the limits of my second car, I found out the difference between disk brakes and racing brakes...
So I sort of moved from thinking I liked laptop keyboards, and hated mechanical ones, to appreciating the qualities of a good mechanical keyboard.
I used a mechanical keyboard (mk for short here on out) for a while after being loaned one by a Mechanical Keyboard Zealot coworker. (he was actually super laid back, and would just lend out keyboards to people :) )
After that I bought a Corsair keyboard because I wanted to get a mk as easily as possible and didn't want to try to decode the mk subreddit. Then that started to "break" (just needed cleaning, whoops, I gave it to my nephew to go with his parents' xmas present of a gaming PC) and I got myself a Ducky mk.
I also tried the ErgoDox but was getting frustrated with it during a crunch time at work, and put it aside for the ducky. One day I want to try the split keyboard again.
As a bonus, the magic keyboard's lower profile means that I don't have to use a wrist rest when I use it, unlike all of my mechanicals, even though I've got the lowest profile available mechanical.
They're extremely well engineered keyboards not worthy of your hate.
It will depend on the switch, but personally on cherry blues and browns I can type while looking away from the keyboard (or screen) with basically 0 typos. On cheap keyboards either I type harder (and slower) on purpose to be sure or I just miss keystrokes randomly.
I can get by with a rubber dome keyboard by if I just write comments like this one, or light office work, where I see immediately what I type, but certain tasks don't have visual feedback (or you just look elsewhere).
In my case, using Vim in normal mode (command chains aren't usually seen until they execute), taking notes off meetings/presentations, doing translation work, adapting code snippets from elsewhere, and refactoring code benefit greatly from touch typing.
Same, but you might want to look into "gamer keyboards", those are usually easier to find. I ended up buying one of those from Razer (this one: https://www.razer.com/gaming-keyboards/Razer-Huntsman-Tourna...) that serves the purpose just fine and I can't say I have any complaints. (Though I obviously have no point of reference on how it compares with other mechanical keyboards.)
Pretty sure I could shave off $50 of the price of a new one and resell it to some teenager if I ever wanted to.
And yet you'll have a really hard time finding a professional photographer using a cheap compact camera or their iPad to do their work. Just like you'll rarely see a professional developer writing code in Notepad.
I can type just as fast on a standard $10 keyboard as on my custom one. But on mine I can type more accurately, more comfortably for much longer periods, I can change the layout at any time as it's fully programmable, and at the same time it feels nicer. Why would I not use it?
It's the same reason I have a plant on my desk. I like to look at it. It doesn't make me smarter, but that doesn't mean watering it is a waste of time.
Typing is just more fun on them. It's similar to having a favorite coffee mug for drinking coffee.
I actually chose the camera I use for a similar reason. It doesn't have the fanciest electronics, but it has all the important controls on physical dials which make it more pleasant to use.
I could feel the early onset of what could have become full blown carpal tunnel early in my career; since switching to mechanicals I have had absolutely zero problems. A Cherry keyboard isn't that expensive and will last forever. For me it is a very worthwhile investment in my health and the longevity of my career.
A "special" keyboard can offer you a lot if you have an itch to scratch. Typing faster, relieving pain, automating sequences, enjoying the clicks, fast focus in low light, no mirror vibration in low light conditions, compact package, ruggedness...
As a side note, photographers are really picky about their gear :)
If you want a standard keyboard with a standard layout or something similar, a cheap rubber dome keyboard is going to work just as well as my $600 keyboard. If that's the type of keyboard you want, the reason people like them is because they think they sound nicer, feel nicer, and in many cases look nicer. They also have better built quality and people appreciate well-built things.
However, there are also situations where people are getting tangible benefits from mechanical keyboards. Some people don't have much desk space, so you can get a smaller keyboard and save room. It also makes them more portable if you feel like taking it with you.
Another tangible benefit is programmability and the use of layers. Some people work faster and more efficiently with a smaller keyboard with multiple layers. Another reason to use layers is for different use cases. I can have one layer programmed with a bunch of hotkeys for Photoshop, another layer for just normal typing/computer use, and another layer setup for gaming.
Another thing to consider is ergonomics. I 3d printed a case for a Dactyl Manuform and hand-wired my own customized, split ergonomic keyboard. After switching to it, the tendonitis in my wrist cleared up.
So, there is value to be found. However a lot of the people that want mechanical keyboards just want something that feels like it is a quality device. If that's what you're looking for, you can get something that will likely be the nicest keyboard you've ever used for $200 or less. Once you get to the $500+ mark for an entire build, you are venturing into the territory where its more of a fashion accessory. People want cases made by certain designers and while in some cases they have better features or are machined to a higher standard, you quickly run into diminishing returns.
IMO if someone wants to get into mechanical keyboards, its hard to beat the standard model of GMMK keyboards for the price. You can get it for $60 without switches or keycaps. At that point pay $30-40 for Box Jade switches if you like clicky switches, $70-100 for zeal helios switches if you like smooth linear switches, or $50 for aliaz 70g tactile switches if you like MX browns. After that spend $30-50 on a cheap but decent PBT keycap set. Finally, do about 10 minutes worth of simple modifications to the keyboard and you'll end up with something that gets you 95% of the value you'd get out of a $2000 keyboard at 1/10th of the price.
I originally got one, as it was hotswap and almost as cheap as a switch tester. But it compares well with say my Ducky.
I got their new "Pro" as a secondary keyboard. Its really nice, however, unlike most of the reviewers I didn't like the polycarbonate plate. I put the stock aluminum one back into it because the polycarbonate one flexes so much the contacts on the switches won't stay in the sockets. Still once that issue was resolved its a great keyboard with a ton of cool features at a pretty affordable price (relatively).
>I originally got one, as it was hotswap and almost as cheap as a switch tester. But it compares well with say my Ducky.
My original standard GMMK ended up being a better keyboard than my first custom kit I spend over $300 on. For some reason my linear switches felt smoother on it, I had less issues, and the build quality was solid enough.
There's no proof it's true. It never holds up in studies, and if it was really true these KBs would have stayed mainstream dominant.
It's a weird internet subculture, just like lots of other stuff. It's about having something fancy and/or unique and showing it to the world.
Much like the quality of a photographer is quite independent of their camera (in fact, the easiest way to insult a photographer is to tell them "wow, what a beautiful picture, what camera do you have?" ), I don't see how a keyboard can make any difference in the quality of the stuff I make. What am I missing?