+1 for hotswap, I skipped the first 2 rounds because they were solder-only lol
imagione missing out on amazing boards because you didnt want to spend 10minutes into learning a usefull and easy skill like soldering. It isnt hard at all.
As people mentioned above already, but I want to elaborate more on this point as person only using hotswap boards till recently:
1. Budget: I plan to have 2-3 soldered keebs maximum, and the rest are hotswaps because I want to play around with switches. So I can just ask for a solder service for 2-3 times and still cheaper than spending money on all the tools (ofc I'm not using cheap tools on my 500$ keyboard lmao). Unless you buy like 10+ solder kits then yes, soldering by yourself should be more economical. But I (and many ppl) just want a few amount of keyboards, and the investment for soldering tools is just not worth.
2. Safety: What would you prefer, having a 500$ keyboard soldered by you after watching a 30-min video on how to soldering, or by a pro that solder hundreds of kits? I know solder is easy to learn, but there is a different between be able to solder vs be able to solder well. Even with customer service, they sometimes make mistakes too. I'm not even talking about buying a kit with desoldered pcb where the solder skill is even more important. With hotswap I just need to plug and play without worrying anything.
3. Convenience: Guess I don't need to say the advantages of hotswap over non-hotswap. And yes millmaxed is a thing, but then we will getting back to point 1 and 2, also switch compatibility is not that good.
In addition, I think lubing is the only skill worth learning when u join this hobby for everyone, from newbie to hobbyist. Cheaper tools, no electricity danger so no harm at all (unless you want to eat lube lol), no long-term consequences if u doing bad (just clean the overlubed switches). Soldering should be learned only when u really love the process to build the keyboard from scratch. For me, the building steps are just waste of time honestly, the thing I enjoy is the typing experience and keyboard itself. So yeah I just spend some bucks and let the pro do their job while I enjoy their product.