I’m eyeing the Keychron Q1, but preferably with a CSA layout.
I don’t believe they sell that particular layout on the Keychron website. Where else could I buy it?
Any mechanical keyboard with QMK firmware is programmable to whatever key layout you want, as long as there are physical keys in the right places. If you could remap another keyboard to have the letters/etc. where you wanted them, would that work?
Maybe something like this?
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The Q1 has QMK as well. And thus can be remapped.
And presumably removable keycaps. 
The only problem comes when you need to do something like put “Shift” on a 1-space key, and the only keycap you have is 1.5 or 1.75 or something like that.
In which case, @Ojanostra might want to check out:
where they have keycaps in all the sizes you could ever need, and will even make custom ones for whatever function you need on whatever size key.
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It’s also worth noting that for some keycap styles, the profile of the keycaps are different depending on which row they are on.
If you don’t look at the keys when typing, it really doesn’t matter what they say on them, as @webwalrus noted, as long as they are in the correct position. A classic example is the ANSI/ISO return/enter key.
Here are some profiles:
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Ah, crap, forgot about that. I went to straight-up DSA keycaps for everything a ways back. 
That said, a set of super-basic DSA or XDA caps can be had on Amazon for $20-$30 if that’s a challenge. Or fancier ones on PimpMyKeyboard, obviously.
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After getting my long-awaited Blade Runner keycap$$$ that cost almost as much as my Drop CTRL, I discovered that I don’t like DSA 
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Ugh, that sucks. I like it with switches that have the more stable base (i.e. not just the +, but the reinforcing box or circle around it).
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I listen to you guys, and say to myself: « Danger, Will Robinson! Steer clear from that rabbit hole! » But the lure of the thock is hard to resist. 
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I like the contours of e.g. SA that give a little more feedback of where my fingers are, and where they’ve landed.
The Q10 has what Keychron is calling an OSA profile, which is OEM height, with the SA shape.
And just to add, keycaps with sculpted profiles complicate things when you want to move them around to match alternate layouts, like Dvorak, Coleman, Colemak, Workman, etc. So maybe blank keycaps are the answer. Or maybe a clear set.
That looks like a nice keyboard. It seems to be pretty much the same as the Q10 Alice I have, with a conventional staggered layout. Maybe get the knob version just for giggles
A couple more rabbit holes:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanicalheadpens/
Or as the later says, “Wallet Bermuda Triangle Hobbies.”
There are plenty of enthusiasts there to help you stimulate the economy.
Here is a beautiful click-y keyboard designed for Mac. This one is plain white, which appeals to me, but Varmilo also has colorful “pretty” designs, if that is your style.
Ping me if/when this conversation swings round to split ergo mechs, and I’ll return to wax lyrical about how much I love my wireless Corne keyboard… 
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I was looking at Corne, but I’m just too used to having all the spacebars and modifier keys under my thumbs. Is there a standard layout that you use that you could link up? I’ve always been curious how Mac people use it.
Keymap’s linked below. TLDR:
- my left thumb cluster hosts alt, cmd and ent; ent = ctrl when held
- space and layer keys on the right thumb cluster
- caps key in the middle of the outermost row on the left (mapped to globe key on the iPad)
- right shift invokes caps word on double tap
- numkeys on the third layer are only really there to support mouse keys, but I haven’t used mousekeys since I picked up a Cheerpod…
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There’s one just for key caps!
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It all started with a few Karabiner Elements layers on my Magic Keyboard… and a while later I found myself typing into this:
I’ll eventually get a nice!nano and get started with ZMK.
Now it’s the end o week 1 and I’m almost up to the same speed I had on the more traditional layout.
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I sympathize with people searching for keyboards these days because there is no place you can go and try a bunch of them out. It’s such a personal decision!
Luckily for me, I got a Northgate Computer System’s OmniKey/102 keyboard in 1989. It has Alps key switches, double injection molded keycaps, a steel chassis, and while it does’t look quite like new, it does perform like new 33 years later. I do pull all the keycaps and clean it occasionally…
No concern about it being a “Windows” keyboard because it predates those. No Windows key. Control key to left of “A”. I have macOS map the Caps Lock key to be Command and I’m good to go.
It’s wired, of course. Uses the old IBM PC style big-barrelled DIN connector that goes through an adapter to PS/2 connector and another adapter to USB-2. When I eventually get a new Mac I’ll just add a USB-2 to USB-C adapter to the string. I’ve already tested that and it does work.
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The legendary Apple Extended Keyboard II also used Alps switches.
When Alps switches were discontinued, Matias created their own homage to them.
A Sweep! Nice.
Obviously, everyone’s different, but I think the muscle memory thing (moving from a full-sized keyboard to a smaller split) is perhaps easier than some people anticipate. I went from a Taptek to a Lily58 to a Corne over a span of months; the Lily58 had a definite learning curve, but it only took maybe a day or so to get comfortable, and maybe a week or so to get back to reasonable typing speeds.
My daily driver is a wireless Corne (nice!nanos, ZMK):
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This. Particularly when it comes to switches. I had a rough sense of what I wanted, but when I was getting started, it didn’t matter how many videos I watched or descriptions I read, I needed a sense of what they actually felt like to type with. Keyswitch testers didn’t really help that much.
After some research, I thought Outemu Silent Whites were the switches for me. Turns out I really like Gateron Ink Silent Blacks…