I am not sure that the lubricant matters for blue Alps. The difference with blue is in the force curve, and nobody knows where this difference lies compared to white Alps.
I assume that, at some point, Jacob#1 is going to swap parts around and examine them using the power of the force — this way we can reliably determine precisely which components are responsible for the feel.
We know that the tactile peak is shallower and starts later. The steel formulation and thickness would affect the magnitude of the force, but not the onset — or would it? The click occurs when the slider finds it easier to slip past the leaf than pull it further forwards, and potentially a change to the click leaf would alter this balance: perhaps a stiffer click leaf would deflect less, causing the slider to push past it (click) sooner. If the leaf is more flexible, it may continue to be pulled forwards for longer.
It's been suggested that the simplified Alps design of having only one actuator prong, to one side of the slider, affects the balance of the switch by trying to tilt the slider. It would be interesting to see how the allegedly Himake switches with this design feel — these are the types typically found in Ortek and Strong Man keyboards (alps.tw Types T5 and T8).
I have a keyboard with USw LABI01 switches, which are a rare type of clone (nothing special, just rare). These, to me, feel many times better than Matias: clean and precise, with just one peak in force, and very smooth. They also have a much stronger, sharper click than Matias. I don't know how consistent they are, but that could be addressed through QC. Longevity, however, is a complete mystery as they're so rare — are they rare because most keyboards using them had high levels of switch failure? There's no way to be sure. They're comparatively heavy though, similar to alps.tw type OA2: not super stiff like the Filco Zero XM or MiniTouch clones, but maybe a bit heaver than white Alps. They could do with being a tad lighter, I feel.
There's a lot of different characteristics of the switch that determine its feel, and the trick is finding materials (composition, thickness etc) that not just provide the desired feel from new, but still work well enough tens of millions of keystrokes later. I don't know that we need to reproduce the switchplate, but the exact balance of forces needs to be understood precisely, with appropriately chosen materials and part shapes and sizes.
