I see a lot of romanticization of the 'craft' of soldering here, but from a purely rational economic perspective, it makes zero sense. The time spent soldering a standard 75% layout—roughly 2 to 3 hours if you factor in prep, flux cleaning, and testing—represents a significant opportunity cost. If your hourly labor value is anything above minimum wage, you are actively losing capital compared to purchasing a hotswap PCB. Furthermore, soldering illiquidly locks your assets (the switches) to a single board. If a switch fails or a new, superior tactile stem is released, your transaction cost to pivot is massive because you have to desolder. Hotswap is essentially a liquid staking derivative for your keyboard components. Change my mind.