And while the ZX Spectrum line didn't have UK legends like this on them, we are sympathetic to the argument that with a set that takes inspiration from a British electronics company has some specific kinship with UK legends
if they were never there, it makes no sense. just admit you're arbitrarily forcing 6 regional keys without physical coverage reasons instead of passing it off as a tribute to something that didn't even exist lmao
also offering 4key 40 support in base while relegating shorter bars to a separate kit is pretty disingenuous
You left out perhaps the most important part of the post you quoted: "We've had significantly more IC/etc. responses asking for UK support than alice support at all, even before we made the bars kit."
To make it completely unambiguous: The primary reason we did this because there was enough IC demand. We're also sympathetic to the argument about Sinclair Research being a British company, but it is a secondary reason.
As for 4-key 40s support, again, people asked for it in the IC. Neither Beesley or I are 40s users so we're going off what people ask for here, because they know their keyboards better than either of us do. My understanding is there are several varieties of 40s layouts that can make use of 6.25U spacebars, and I have seen people using the the larger shifts as their spacebars as well (though that would admittedly be a bit weird here with the R4/R5 split.) We have a lot of IC responses asking for 4-key 40s, to the point where it tipped the balance on demand vs. cost while also accounting for the fact extended 40s kits struggle to meet MOQ and a separate 4-key kit would not be economically feasible because of how pricing works and likely end up in the same boat. If meeting one of the most common requests in our IC form is disingenuous, I'm not sure what to say.
I don't want this to get contentious, but misquoting us and picking fights isn't going to get kitting changed - we're not having a debate where the winner, on style or substance, gets their way. We have to make reasoned decisions based on customer demand, price, MOQ concerns, etc. A lot of designer's lives would involve a lot less stress if it was possible to make everyone happy, but it isn't. We're doing what we can to the best of our ability to make the most people happy. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing in our power we can do to make everyone happy.
