My problem is kind of the opposite - most light themes I've seen are too contrasty and I can't discern the different colours all that well, moreover too much contrast is tiring to my eyes. Black text on white background is about the same as white text on black background. Most of the time I prefer dark themes, but those with low or medium contrast.
I've thought about this as well, but I haven't been able to find such a light sensor.
There are actually some models already with a built in ambient light sensor. I don't know how much of a convenience it would be, whether it would be distracting if small changes in ambient light make the brightness go up and down all the time. I personally prefer changing it manually - I have a macro pad with knobs which are mapped to do that.
Reply with "That's your problem, not mine".
Limmy pls.
Controversial opinion: if your monitor is set to the proper brightness for the room's ambient light, light or dark theme becomes a matter of preference. If you're in a completely dark room with your brightness set to 100%, then of course a light theme won't work.
Boardsource Lulu. Built with Gateron Silent Ink Black and MT3 Susuwatari.
It has been my most used daily board for the past year and a bit more. First split, first ortho, first custom build for me. Coming from a 75% board with traditional stagger there was some adjustment mainly due to the ortho nature (but otherwise I was already using IJKL as arrows on the 75% board for example). First couple of days I was typing at 9 WPM (down from my then usual 90-ish), I needed a week to get back up to around 70-80 (fortunately I was between jobs then, so it wasn't critical).
In terms of layout I think this is the perfect amount of thumb keys that's manageable for me (on the bottom left I have Super/Win, Alt, MO(1) and Space, and Ctrl is to the left of A). I have another board with more keys there and they're not all that useful. I think however that I could do with a few more keys in the inner columns - on this board in particular if I want to use rotary encoders, I have to sacrifice the keys in the inner column, and those keys are useful for brackets and also for some primary letters in my native language (Bulgarian - it has 30 letters in the alphabet). I've tried home row mods, but I don't think I can rely on those as the sole way to access a mod. I personally couldn't do without the number row even though I have a num block on a layer - so 60-ish percent is fine for me for most things.
I'm pretty happy with the build quality. One thing I don't like is the plastic bottom - if you don't tighten it properly it rattles a bit, and every time I go about tightening it I'm afraid I might crack it.
I really like the MT3 profile keycaps - they basically hug your fingers in such a way that it's pretty hard to get lost on the layout, and it also encourages proper ten finger technique. As for the switches - I get why people generally recommend lighter ones for split boards - I find those a tad too heavy. Also in stock form they're not fully quiet and have some mush to them (I guess it's inherent to this kind of silent MX switch). I might do a spring swap and lube at some point, or maybe swap the switches entirely (since I have another board that I lug to the office, this one doesn't really need to be quiet any more).
Another board that I'm looking forward to is the ai03 Altair - it solves most of my gripes with the Lulu in that the case is fully aluminium and that the layout has a few more keys in the inner columns. As an added bonus the halves connect using USB-C, not TRRS. The only thing I don't really like is that it has neither a display nor indicator LEDs - so managing multiple layers would be a bit harder unless I find a way to add a LED somewhere. I have the Dark Grey on preorder and I'm probably putting MTNU Graphite keycaps (or perhaps something like MT3 Darkness) on it.
There's also the flip side of this - clueless beginners buying needlessly expensive things (not to them because they're beginners but in general), in turn telling manufacturers that there's a market for needlessly expensive things. But hopefully the people with more sense outweigh them so that the market regulates itself.
All the boards I currently rotate between (3 at this time) have factory soldered hotswap sockets. I haven't done much soldering myself, none on keyboards in particular. For PCBs that come assembled or unassembled I prefer to pay a bit more for assembled because it's generally not a huge difference. Unfortunately some don't offer that option.
I have a solderable PCB of one of the first custom boards I got a few years back and I still haven't gotten to building it - I couldn't commit to a specific switch, the PCB doesn't support soldering hotswap sockets, and adding millmax ones seemed too much of a hassle. Moreover at one point they announced they'll supply hotswap PCBs, so I'm probably going that route.
I don't know what platform this is, but such a review should be moderated in some way. If an employee treats you badly during normal service, then fine, it's justified to drop a negative review, but if you're as incompetent as to be unable to understand that nobody is obliged to serve you outside of the stated working hours, it's entirely your problem and it shouldn't affect the rating of the establishment.
Cool! Thanks a lot for the thorough answer!
Fair enough, whatever works for you - but I feel like this is more of an exclusion and the majority of people are just too lazy to set their monitor brightness properly.