Which custom 60% layout designs for GH60 should I choose

[proxhotdog]

Hi, this is my first post on this forum. I got a CM Storm QuickFire Rapid (Cherry MX Brown) for my first mechanical keyboard and now Poker II is my daily use keyboard.
However, I am not so happy with the design of Poker II, especially the "Esc" key. As a linux command-line user, I always need to input "~" symbol and I would like to program my keyboard to input that symbol more easily with Shift+Esc but failed to do so. By default, you have to input Fn+Shift+Esc in order to input "~",  even though it has a built-in dip switch for me to remap the right ctrl key to the backtick, but that key is too far from my left hand. Also, I would like to have arrow keys on the first layer, thus I can easily move my cursor easily in Excel. Therefore, I decided to implement my own keyboard layout and put it into my existing Poker II case. Here are the designs:
A)
B)

[suicidal_orange]

Welcome to GH

I'm playing spot the difference here and have found just one - the backspace shrank to make room for backtick.  Did I miss anything?

I would say how much you use escape would be the deciding factor here.  It would be easy enough to add another layer so when you hold tab the backtick key (in it's familiar position next to 1) maps to esc so you can hit both with one finger.

The only time I use escape is when a formula wont take in excel so it's more a frustrated slap than a normal keypress anyway, so that's what I'd do )

[proxhotdog]

I use Esc very often because I use the vim editor. For the "~" symbol, I use it often too as typing paths in linux system or in my programs. I ususally don't use the right ctrl and alt keys, therefore I can put arrow keys at the lower right corner to suit my need.