It certainly seems like a "weirdest keyboard contest", but what it seems to me to be intended as is more of a most interesting keyboard list. Here are the designs that are different, the ones that hold the most promise for the future of revolutionizing how a keyboard works.
I thought it particularly odd that they chose a dual typewriter set up so that one typewriter was used for equations. Why not choose a Selectric typewriter - or a Hammond (or Varityper) or a Blickensderfer, for that matter? Or, if they did want a multiple keyboard setup that did equations without changing elements (or even turning the typing head, since a Hammond/Varityper holds two elements at once)... why not a Monotype keyboard, set up for four-line mathematics?
The Optimus Maximus does use a tactile switch, and they did include one version of the HHKB. Economy wasn't on their minds, so the Model M, for example, didn't make the list. But by concentrating on designs that are different, designs that may point the way to something for the future... they seem to be revealing a profound dissatisfaction with keyboards the way they are.
I can be profoundly dissatisfied with the output of market leaders Logitech and Microsoft (when Microsoft went to Windows 3.1, it ended the offer where you got a free copy of Windows 3.0 with a Logitech mouse, and Logitech had the temerity to sue it... is Microsoft getting into the keyboard and mouse business all about revenge?) without thinking that the whole idea of the keyboard has run its course.
