While I understand paying homage to the original GMK Signal, personally, I am not a fan of the Mac bottom row mods in base, but the icon mods for R1-R3 and the Shifts (and split right-shift) are fine. Given that, an Alt Mods kit appeals to me. That said, I can't wrap my head around what the Alt Mods kit in it's current state is trying to do. If the intention is as named (provide alternate mods for the people that don't vibe with the icon mods), there are some swaps needed. I prefer the standard legends instead of the signal-themed ones as those feel more like novelties to me.
Assuming utilization of standard legends, you can strip the current Alt Mods kit of the following:
- Accent and non-accent R1 Esc keys: already in base
- F5-F8: already in base
- R2 mod/pipe: already in base
- ZXC with date sublegends: would be a better fit in the novelties kit IMO
- F13 and R1 Delete: already in base
You could then replace those removed keys with the below, bringing the alt mod offerings to parity with the base kit and allowing someone to swap all the icon mods to standard text+icon:
- R3 1.75 Control and Stepped Control
- 2x R4 1.5U Super and 2x R4 1U Alt
- R4 1U Control
- R2 Backspace
While on the topic of carving up kits, what are your thoughts about splitting the mini bars, extra B, and accent bars from the current Extension kit into a standalone spacebars kit? If you split the bars out, you could keep the existing shinethroughs, 40s support, and nipple homing, and then add maybe BAE and XT column macro keys to the extension kit?
