I also joined the mechnical keyboard cult. I received a HPE87 one from qtang. The seal of the box in which the keyboard was in had been broken and the shift key was loose when I opened the box, but I was able to put the shift key back and it seems that it works like it should. The other protection seems to have been sufficient and other than the shift key there was not anything damaged in any way.
I like the feel of the keyboard; it feels as I have something of some value. I seem to type at about the same speed (or perhaps a bit faster), but it does seem that typing is less exhaustive when compared to before. I actually put some weights on the keys to see how much force was required to activate a press. It's certainly close to specification (it's less than 50 grams, but I cannot measure more precisely), and certainly requires less activation force than a normal keyboard, which was one of the main reasons to get one.
Since I never owned a mechanical keyboard before, I cannot compare it to your wonderful keyboards. Why are mechanical keyboards so heavy, btw?
I do sort of miss the media keys on this particular keyboard, but with some programming you can get around these issues. The Enter key also isn't as large as on my previous key, but I rarely, if ever miss it.
I think I don't really like the part where you can feel the letters on for example the 'Caps Lock' key, but given the way the normal letters (a-z) are labeled, you never hit those, which is a fairly interesting solution (cheap, but functional). Only when you actually try to feel it, it might annoy you.
I suppose they can better leave the logo off, because it only costs material and it's not like anyone can read it. It comes with a few extra keys too, but since I am not a gamer, there is no real point in using it.
All in all, I believe I made a right choice, but that might be the Stock Hold Syndrom speaking.