OLEDs on custom boards

[Tseg]

While I'm new to custom keyboards, I was pleasantly surprised when getting into this hobby to hear most custom boards don't have massive RGB backlighting.  Now I just watched a review for a soon to be released QK65 v2, and the reviewer made the comment in 2023 and beyond, incorporating a small OLED screen in a custom keyboard is now an expectation (of which the v2 does have).  Maybe I'm just old, but I am not a fan of all the electronic add-ons to custom keyboards, despite my entry into mechanical keyboards by buying a Steel Series with RGB and OLED screen.  The reason being is along with advancing my knowledge and collection of custom boards I have also been working on upping my touch-typing game.  The result is I don't actually look at my board while I'm typing.  Having a bunch electronic accessories on a board I do not look at when I use seems so unnecessary... clutter and a distraction, really.  In summary, I see RGB and OLED as a gimmick and screams, "I'm cheap and have no class!"  I guess to "each their own"... "preferences", and all that jazz.   All those extras just seem like unnecessary plastic cladding on an old Pontiac... or silicone implants (not that there is anything wrong with silicone implants, other than that they can break).    For me and custom keyboards, less is more.   Am I showing my age?  Am I in the minority?

[Fraaaan]

It's really all just preference.

I would never buy a keyboard with a knob, for example, but I understand they're very popular and have their place in the hobby.

[TomahawkLabs]

How do you sell a new keyboard that is exactly like the other 5 keyboards that user has on their wall? You add a new feature, worthwhile or not. Joking aside, it's just market evolution. I agree that a display is a novelty at best and largely doesn't impact the use of a keyboard peripheral's use for typing into a computer system. Similar to the knob trend, it doesn't offer much in the way of actual productivity. Every suggestion for the knob is a silly feature at best or can be handled by other solutions (Volume, page back/foward, etc).

I am also a "less is more" kinda thing. If you look at boutique guitar amplifiers or cars they stick to the basics and just do their best to showcase the core and are less "feature rich". In my mind the perfect mechanical keyboard for a hobbyist is designed around the sound/feel of the keyboard while using materials that would be not found in the general consumer market.