>Thanks! I was worried I might get murdered immediately for my cable not matching my red keys or something lol.

The best advice I can give you about this hobby is to do what works for YOU, and ignore what other people think about it.

If that's mixing keycap colors, moving keycaps to a different row, turning keycaps upside down, or sticking rubber cabinet bumpers onto your keys as homing dots, go for it.
I actually do all of those things, on my keyboards, and I don't apologize for it.
That is what works, for me.

I don't really care about one material over the other.
I care about initial quality, and durability.

That said, I see shine as a badge of honor, rather than a defect.
It shows you actually USE the keyboard in question.
That is provided the keycaps are double-shot, to keep them from losing their legends, like cheap painted-on keycaps do.

Good luck.
I hope it all works out well for you.

Looking at the posting for that September meetup, there's a Discord channel listed for MKUK.
Joining that may get you into the loop for any upcoming events, or at least put you into touch with other users in the area.

I highly recommend keyboard meetups, if you can find one near you.

That's saved me a ton on money, by allowing me to test all kinds of stuff (different cases, layouts, switches, keycaps, etc...), all at someone else's expense.

But, will "close enough" also be "good enough" for you, in the end?
It ultimately wasn't for me.
I realized a while back that nobody, except me, could design my perfect keyboard.

My one no-compromise feature is a proper numpad.
Designing my own layout gave me all the functions of my 1800s, including a full-size, properly laid out numpad, while keeping everything in a 60% case, with HHKB blockers.

Here's the "improved" version of my HHKB-layout board, for Mac use.

https://preview.redd.it/95h3vmugl4ra1.jpeg?width=1208&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=683a66e8eb818096203ff56f2b374de1fde3d83f

For the record, it was worth every penny I spent, and every minute I put into it.

I haven't tried that, but also haven't needed to.

A while back, I dove down the portion of the rabbit hole where you finally acknowledge that nobody else is going to design your perfect keyboard, so you will have design it for yourself.

I'm so far down the custom ortho hole now, even stuff I used to love has lost a lot of its attraction, like the Apple AEK, and my Wind X.

Your hands don't both rotate inwards though.

Look at the stagger on the left side.
As you move upward on the stagger, you have to turn your left hand outward, rather than inward.

If rotating both hands inward while typing is your goal, I'd highly recommend checking out split ortho boards.
Those actually do allow both hands to rotate inwards, without requiring the outward turn that staggered boards do.

The one next to the space bar, with Option next to that, mimicking a Mac layout.

Can you hit Command+Option+P with your left hand only?
I can do that on all of my keyboards, which is why I don't like any board that splits the modifiers.

I use both platforms interchangeably because I have my Windows keyboards set up to mimic the Mac format.
Ctrl+Alt+R on a PC is exactly the same key-chord as Command+Option+R on a Mac, with that layout.

I posted a pic of my two layouts below.
The top one is my work layout, and the bottom one is for home use.

The top layout is considerably more efficient for graphic work because I designed it specifically for that purpose, and have the numpad overlapping the right hand alphas, in home position.
That lets me switch between alphas, arrows and numpad, on the fly, without moving either hand from its home position.
I even have the number row numbers mapped to the numpad area, so I don't have to go off home position for those.

The home board is slightly different, and less efficient, because I use it primarily for gaming and browsing.
I game using the mouse in my left hand, and use the numpad for button input.
Having the numpad area all the way to the right, with the blocker just to the left of Num0, feels more comfortable to me while gaming, so that's how my home board ended up being laid out.

https://preview.redd.it/juumuf5ogzqa1.jpeg?width=1226&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=0814f3275602c01147242c2ce76f0edc4d4f7add

I hit Command+Opt a lot, in both Illustrator, and Photoshop.

Any keyboard that separates those two modifiers, will make it more difficult for me to hit those commands with my left hand only.
I generally hit those two keys with my left thumb, while rotating my entire hand to hit the actual character I need with my index finger.

On my custom ortho work board, I can hit Command+Opt+P with my left hand only.
I can't even come close to that on a WKL, or Alice.
I'm limiting my reach, right off the bat, by having to hit one of the modifiers with my pinky.

You can build a work-around for that, with either macros or mod-tap commands, but I like to keep things as similar as possible across all keyboards, to avoid muscle memory issues.
I have to use other people's computers a lot too, so I don't want mine to be that different from theirs.

Streamlining was my goal as well.
More specifically, I wanted to be able to type an entire address without moving any finger more than one key from its home position, and I accomplished that with the layout I posted there.

I went just a bit bigger than you, on the case, because my secondary goal was to avoid muscle memory conflicts, given that I have to use other people's keyboards/computers quite frequently.
My layout feels "mostly normal", when compared to the 60% portion of a standard keyboard, so I don't have to fight muscle memory on other people's equipment.

As a graphic designer, I'm a very heavy key-chorder, so the modifier layout on the Alice doesn't work for me at all, personally.
That aside, I also don't like the weird stagger on the keys, and the lack of a proper 10-key.

The left half, in particular, feels like it is staggered backwards to me, during normal use, but I've always felt that about "normal" staggered keyboards as well.
As far as ergo-type layouts go, I've always preferred the way split ortho boards allow the keys follow your hands naturally, as you rotate the halves of the keyboard.

That said, both my dailies are custom ortho layouts, in standard 60% cases.
My typing style creates a natural splay to my arms, when I'm using ortho layouts, so I don't need an actual split, and the ortho layout allows me to work a proper numpad into the layout.

You should try that with the Num5 centered on the "K" key.
That will keep you from having to move your hands, when swapping between alphas and numbers, which is really nice.
I've gotten so used to that now, I actually get annoyed when I have to move my hands over 4 whole keys, on the alternate layout I use for gaming, with the numpad pushed all the way to the right, overlaying the right hand modifiers.

For anyone else wanting to do this, make sure you use the number row keycodes, instead of the numpad keycodes.
That will let you access all the shifted characters, from the number row, on the numpad.

https://preview.redd.it/p4ebzby2axqa1.jpeg?width=1208&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=e9f5e8cf063f986d6d9c1224d815ea1a8be62a77

I put mine in the middle of my layout.

I got tired of having to move my hand back and forth all the time.
Now, I can type a complete address, without ever moving any finger more than one key away from its home position.

For me, "Move right hand to numpad" has been replaced with "Press down with left thumb".

https://preview.redd.it/1udcz7184qqa1.jpeg?width=1208&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=3b06aa3735dbbe37803c728e820cf226632723d6

Hand-wiring is always an option.
Somebody on r/HandwiredKeyboards actually handwired an entire 96 a while back, converting it to ortho in the process, when their PCB died.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HandwiredKeyboards/comments/zk2s5i/need_a_hand_creating_hex_for_6x19_for_a_teensy_2/

I had to dive a bit deeper into the rabbit hole than you, but yes.

In the end, I realized nothing someone else designed would ever be MY endgame board.
That led me to design my own layouts, which I then put into existing cases.

>Each time I go to meets its normally the same thing you see over and over just with different variations.

This is the point at which you need to decide whether to let your own creativity loose.

If YOU design your own keyboard(s), you can make them as different from everything else out there as you want.
You don't necessarily have to design everything from scratch either.
You can buy some portions outright, and have other portions custom built.

The keyboards in the pic below both use off-the-shelf KPRepublic 60% cases, but are a night and day departure from the original keyboards those cases were designed to house.
I designed those layouts myself, for my own use, in two very specific locations.
I had plates cut, to mimic the mounting of the originals, but with dramatically different layouts, then hand-wired everything together, using Elite-C controllers.

https://preview.redd.it/yzertqdmpdqa1.jpeg?width=1226&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=e8810befd9f9c4f35c7df7172df5b71b16d21cef

I don't have any use for a knob on my keyboard.

My speakers, and my headset, each have their own dedicated knobs for volume.
They also have controls for other functions, which would not be easily mimicked by a keyboard knob.
My headset, for example, has a mix knob that allows me to raise/lower the relative volumes of the in-game audio, and voice chat.

You're not touch-typing on your phone though, nor are you transcribing things, so I'm not sure how big an impact the arrangement of the characters actually has.

By contrast, I type professionally, so I spend a lot of my time looking at the source material I'm entering, rather than watching what's coming up on the screen.
Having characters migrating around, on different keyboards, would play hell with that.

I looked into a bunch of the "more efficient" layouts, during the design phase for my boards.
I ultimately chose to keep my layouts as close to standard QWERTY as possible because I use other people's computers/keyboards quite frequently, and didn't want to deal with all the muscle memory issues switching layouts would create.

I think I would do really well with one of the more efficient layouts, if I were able to use it exclusively.
I can't do that though, and switching back and forth tanks my efficiency on both layouts.

Swapping layouts like that requires me to be constantly thinking about typing, which interferes with my ability to type while thinking, if that makes sense to you.

It's at least worth giving it a shot.
Worst case, you don't like it, or can't get used to it, and you have to put it back afterwards.

Here's the sister board to that one, I designed for home use.
The numpad is pushed all the way over to the right on that one because that's where it's most comfortable for me, while gaming.

It's funny though, because I've gotten so used to my work board that having to move my hand over four whole keys, to use the numpad, is annoying to me now.
I'm actually working on altering my layout, at the moment.
I want to make my home board a split alpha, like yours, so I can avoid that (relatively minor) hand movement.

https://preview.redd.it/8wpmocullepa1.jpeg?width=1226&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=6c75d3962902cf08954585916ecfdc9f3de35939

It's simple, if you go ortho.
You're wasting a lot of real estate, if you're using a normal keyboard.

You should try moving the numpad, so that it overlaps the alphas, at their home position.
Having it overlap like that makes it so you can use the numpad, during normal typing, without having to move either hand from its home position.

In those instances where you are moving your right hand to the numpad, I simply press down with my left thumb, to bring the numpad to my right hand.
This is especially noticeable when you are typing something like an address, where you switch back and forth quickly, between numbers and alphas.

It would also leave all those keys down the middle available for other functions, including a proper "Inverted T" arrow cluster, usable by either hand.

Here's my version of your board.
Mine's a custom hand-wire, so I was able to properly lay out the entire numpad, but the same idea works fine on a full ortho, like yours.

https://preview.redd.it/gorr9d3y7epa1.jpeg?width=1208&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=5a7fdac464b5d6d2e7539ecb03f587fa16e7de94

No problem.

I try to save everybody as much as I can in this hobby.
The more you save, and the more research you do, the more likely you are to end up with a couple really nice boards, rather than a whole pile of mediocre boards.