The topre love hinges upon Familiarity.. because the MAJORITY of the new users grew up on rubber dome keyboards..
The only rubber dome keyboard that felt relatively close to Topre was (if I recall correctly) Dell KB1421 (of unknown OEM), but while the KB1421 feels relatively good, it has nothing of the rock solid build construction of a Realforce. (I've never used a Leopold so I can't say if those are as well-made.)
Other rubber dome keyboards in general though don't feel the same as Topre. If you look at the force curve for Topre, it's almost a sine wave, and that's how it feels. Rubber domes tend to either have a sharp tactile point, or very little tactility, while Topre achieve a very stretched tactile peak with distinct tactility. Topre has a characteristic feel that differs quite significantly from other rubber dome keyboards. One advantage with capacitive sensing is that there is no requirement for the top of the dome to bottom out, so the overtravel feel can be eased, which potentially explains why they can achieve a feel that nobody else can. The Topre force curve provides feedback without the mild shock associated with most tactile switches, making it very comfortable. (I don't know if I'm desensitised now, or the switches are worn after six years of use, but I could really sense the shock from MX Blue tactility and it could be quite unpleasant and jarring at times. Domes are never that bad, of course.)
Personally I found the Topre feel to be
too rounded. It would be interesting to try out a keyboard of
ITT ETL18 switches, as those have a similarly rounded feel but not the soft landing of a dome. They feel a lot like tactile Mitsumi switches but without the scratch feel and sound.
