Very much diy but this kind of layout from Weteor ticks a lot of your boxes.

https://github.com/weteor/ChonkyKong

Let me know if you need guidance on getting from the GitHub to an actual physical board. Soldering will be required (which I always encourage because I find it fun) but I recognize not everyone has the time.

Link your board and folks will be better able to assist. The switch type makes a big difference for stem and height.

Mokulua kit from mechwild probably your cheapest option. It’s a solder kit and all through hole, I built one myself and had fun. It’s fr4 sandwich so on the cheaper end, though depends on what you’re used to. Soldering is fun!

I was most surprised by how I became emotionally hooked by this novel rather than intellectually (if that makes sense) - I wasn’t as into the world but more the people, which is rare for me in a sci fi/fantasy novel. What a heartbreaker.

Get a second car for my family and buy a house… God damn this feels bleak.

Based on descriptions on their website it looks like they aren’t… Maybe it’d be possible to desolder one and put on new switches yourself, but that’s a lot of work and if you don’t have the gear/experience for it it can be frustrating or destructive.

There is a custom service listed with a whole lot of choice. I’ve found over time I value hotswap less, both as I get to know what switches I like and also because hotswap can cause decision fatigue. If my switches are soldered in I feel more secure in not thinking about changing them.

Of course now I just get more boards instead oh no help

There’s a spectrum of DIY to it. Boards with an integrated MCU may only require that you solder switches. Switch soldering is quite forgiving and I’d say pretty fun. There are some people who hate soldering but still like custom boards, so they will use a soldering service (unfortunately, usually found via word of mouth or places like mechmarket). If you wanted a cheap kit with lots of soldering and you’re in the EU, I’d look at https://42keebs.eu/products/kits/

They have a couple of splits available. A lot depends also on how many keys you’re looking to have. The wonderful world of layers and combos has a learning curve but there’s plenty of programmers who use very small boards on a daily basis. ZMK might be fun for you if you do coding on the side as well as for work.

Feel free to send a DM if you have specific questions, I’m getting a bit long here.

Not sure of your budget or thoughts on some DIY. If you don’t have the time to game, you might not have time to solder… In that case I’d recommend looking at options from Kinesis: https://kinesis-ergo.com/products/#keyboards

You can also look through here (https://golem.hu/boards/) for some diy options if you’d prefer that route. Kukkurovaca had a much more detailed explanation. (Hi Kukkurovaca, cool to see you here instead of on discord!)