I went through a journey trying some mechanical switches on a ROG Azoth keyboard and just couldn't find one that was perfect for home office use, personal use, as well as some sweaty gaming sessions. It was one or the other. So I went to HE keyboards. I love having two profiles - one for gaming and one for typing. I do like the Air75 V3 mech switches, and it's quite portable, so a nice to have.
At home I ended up with a Lemokey P1, Monsgeek M1 V5 HE, Nuphy WH80, and a Nuphy Air75 V3. At the office I have an Aula F75 Max, because I wanted a number pad for work.
I will say out of every mech switch I tried and HE switch, I think the F75 Max has a top performing switch for typing. It's just the right balance of feel and sound IMO. The F75 Max negatives are the RGB lighting is low, and the south reflecting shine through keycaps are not for everyone. Some mech switches I tried were the Asus NX Snow (which are quite good, and I don't like Asus), Gateron G Speed silver pro V3.0, Gateron Ghost Keyboard Switches, Gateron Black Ink V2 pros, and Cherry MX2A Reds that were hand-lubed by the seller. I just didn't want to keep spending tons of money on mech switches to find something that was the best of both worlds, when I learned I could customize actuation times with HE.
Of the HE keyboards, the Lemokey P1 has the quietest/creamy switches, I put on the Orange version of their proprietary switches, a lighter actuation point than the stock purple ones. This is a major downside of the Lemokey, Keychron has went with the ugly move of only letting them be compatible with custom Gateron switches done as a collab. You can't use any other HE switches on this board. However, it works for me because I like the switches, and it's the quietest of the three - which means if I have a guest, it's what I'll use for a late night intense gaming session.
The M1 V5 Astrolink switches are lovely, and so are the stock WH80 switches - they are of a similar style. I enjoy the sound and feel on these - a bit more to the clacky side than thocky, but it's quite pleasant still. I may sell one of the HE keyboards but honestly right now, I would have no clue which one.
My requirements were - cherry profile keycaps, 75-80% layout, HE, volume knob, profile switching shortcuts, and I preferred north facing LED's, but compromised on the Monsgeek for that one thing. There were multiple amazing keyboards I totally passed on because of no volume knob btw. It's a must have for me. Stupid to not have one for my use case. My PC is my entertainment center, I need volume control like that.
Software ratings - Nuphy>Lemokey>Monsgeek>Aula. Thumbs down to Lemokey/Keychron and Monsgeek for not letting you customize the keystrokes to change profiles. Huge props to Nuphy for having a manual profile switch.
If anyone wants to ask comparison questions, by all means, shoot.
Lemokey - Put on the keycaps from my ROG Azoth as I love them. They are my favorite cherry profile keycaps I have tried. WASD textured keycaps as well, from Amazon.
Monsgeek - stock keycaps, textured WASD ones from 3d keycaps
Nuphy Air75 V3 - shine through Womier low profile keycaps.
WH80 - stock keycaps, which I probably will change, and textured WASD keycaps from Amazon.
I have tried a whole bunch of textured WASD keycaps and these two are my favorite I've found.
