If you remake an IBM space saver with Cherry MX blue switches, you don't really have anything special. And really, a Filco with blues would still be a better keyboard.
I don't think so. Filcos are not high-end keyboards. I know because I bought one. 150€ and, within weeks, my keys shine, WTF?! In my opinion, Unicomp and Cherry are the only reliable manufacturers of durable decent mechanical keyboards. Interestingly, their keyboards are also cheaper. They may not be lookers, but they are closer to what I was looking for. However, no tenkeyless keyboards from them, otherwise I would have bought one already and had been done with it.
The problem with other manufacturers is that their keyboards are all alike. Such manufacturers rely on the mechanical nature of their keyboards for sales, while skimping over the rest.
I would have to disagree somewhat here. First of all, as an advocate of good keycaps, I will say that the filco ones are likely not as good as they could be. Still, I take issue with your claim that cherry and unicomp are the only reliable keyboard manufacturers. What about ducky? the KB build quality should be roughly the same as filco, and you can get them with long lasting PBT keycaps.
A strike against cherry: many of their POS keybaords are awful, with crazy amount of flex in the PCB. The cases will crack if you so much as look at them sharply, and while the engraved and infilled keycaps might look nice, they wont after a few months. Cherry no longer makes doubleshots or dyesubs, if you recall.
Additionally, I would like to say there are numerous other manufacturers of reliable keyboards. I have two TG3 boards that show exemplary construction throughout, as well as being some of the only keyboards that have proper grounding of the metal plates. Both have either dyesub PBT keycap surface, or doubleshot ABS.
Going further afield, there are lots of manufacturers that build good keyboards for industrial use. GMK made most of the WEY terminal boards, and thought I don't have one of them, they are indeed nice. Gilbarco used keytronic reed switches before switching to cortronics as their OEM for hall effect. I'm not sure what they use now though.
Devlin has bought alphameric, and is likely one of the only suppliers capable of producing a rubberdome keybaord with NKRO (other than Topre of course). The keycaps are keytronic'stem compatible dyesub PBT in all cases I have seen. It's thelevel of durability I would expect from a keyboard used my the US millitary, and is far superior in construction and reliability claims than any of cherry's or unicomps claims.
Also, what about IBM? Their quality has always been good. They still make keyboards, and they have some of the nicer plate mounted rubberdomes in the POS industry. They even still use SDL - PS/2 cables.
Please also note that cherry makes and has made a number of keyboards, and some are quite small. The G80-1950 I have is about the size of a TKL board I would say. They have crammed a lot of brown switches on it as well.
Finally, I don't think your claim that filcos are not high end keybaords because you ahve a single issue with it is fair. Now even though a filco is not perfect, they are still solidly in the realm of "high end". I would argue that, despite pricing concerns, most mechanical keyboards count as "high end". Now is Filco top tier? no, and they have never been.
