I'll propose the opposite. Aesthetic is one of the most deciding factors IMHO, the underlying hardware could theoretically be reverse engineered. And beside, how often someone change their keyboard layout.

A practical way to narrow this down is to start from the VIA and QMK side rather than the cute side. Look for a hot-swappable 75 percent board that is actually listed as VIA-supported, and test that claim before you commit if you can: with the board connected, VIA should recognize it and let you remap a key without a separate proprietary app. Once the firmware side is settled, you can add the playful look with a colorful, animal-themed keycap set, which is much easier to change later than the board itself. Hotswap also helps here, since you can try quieter or lighter switches later without soldering.

Short answer: yes, it can get close to your Dell, but only if you pick the right switch on purpose — a regular clicky board definitely won't.

For night use in a small house I'd skip anything clicky and look for a board with silent linear or silent tactile switches. Those have little dampeners built in, so you don't get that sharp clack on the way down or back up. A normal tactile like a Brown is quieter than a Blue, but in a quiet room at night it can still sound pretty present, especially on the bigger keys.

The other thing that surprised me when I first switched was how much of the noise is just bottoming out — smacking the key all the way down. A slightly heavier switch, a desk mat underneath, and just easing off a bit made more difference for me than chasing a specific brand.

If you can, try a couple of switch testers or a display board in a shop first. Your Dell is a good baseline: if the board you try sounds about the same or softer than that in a quiet room, you're probably fine for late-night use.

Sometimes there are mechanical keyboards on display in tech shops. You could try and see how they feel to type on them.

The Keychron K3 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard might be to your liking. It's small tho idk if you prefer a full size. But it's very low profile, has a backlight, good build quality, etc. And is quite quiet. If you like a membrane I think you'll like it.

thing is i use the pc at night in a small house and something clicky would be annoying, the quieter i can get the more respectful yk

Some are quieter than others.

People who are in open concept offices without noise cancelling headphones are already at a massive disadvantage. I tend not to worry much about it. If I need to do work in the office for some manager’s amusement, I haul in the keyboard and mouse and complain about the low-res monitors. I’m a fucking delight.

There are silent mechanical keyboards available if noise is a problem! Silent switches have gotten very good in recent times :D

I have 2 mechanical keyboards with "Brown" switches that are the most regular "tactical" type of switch. I didn't find them particularly noisy compared to the "blue" Cicky switches that are loud AF.

Recently I was wondering if I could bring a MK to the office and I still think my current keyboards with brown switches are too loud for open-space. So, I ordered some samples of silent switches and Oh Boy! They are very quiet! The typing feel is maybe not as "crisp" as the regular switches, still a mile better then membrane.

If you want a MK for the office, make sure to configure it with silent switches, and you should be good to go.

Some people like to strike keys like a f-ing woodpecker whose mother was personally insulted by this particular keyboard. I had a colleague who was louder with a membrane keyboard than me with a Model M.

There are regular switches, which are kinda noisy, there are clicky switches, which are loud as fuck.

But there are silent switches, and there are strategies to silent them even more (Bandaid mods, o-rings, stab lubrication etc). My work keyboard with Boba U4 switches and the aforementioned mods is well within the noise floor of an open-space. It's not "silent" as in "completely inaudible in a controlled environment", but it is no louder than a laptop keyboard (and with a deeper, softer, less jarring sound).

https://youtu.be/RkTp5Nhjndk

If you want to have a listen, you can see that the majority of the noise is from the key returning to the top, which can be massively reduced by using more dense material in the keycaps themselves, and by using rubber o-rings on the keycap stems. (Or by having weaker springs so the upwards return force is less aggressive)

The sound is at about the same level as typing on a regular membrane keyboard

If you're in an open office setting mechanical keyboards can annoy people even with silencers.

I drag my work mechanical out only when I know I'll have my own office

For me it's being able to pick and choose the resistance to button presses, I go with heavy (60-70g) springs because I have a habit of hammering on keys and that resistance reduces the time I spend bottoming out the keys.

I use tactile switches (no audible click but a noticeable feel of when the switch actuates) instead of the 'blue' or clicky keyswitches because I prefer my keyboard not announce itself.

Linear switches are also an option, with some of them you can have an entirely silent action, often with softer springs so that typing on it feels like brushing your fingers across a cloud (for me softer springs means pressing random keys all the time because I am a ham fisted gorilla in a human suit.)

I’ve got GATERON G Pro 3.0 switches with Glorious Gaming O-Ring switch [70A (HARD) / Thin], and it’s about the same noise as a membrane but has a much better feel to it when typing.

When you pick switches, there are lots of options. Here’s what GATERON has:

auch, sound is kind of a dealbreaker sadly

Some people do love membrane keyboards, and I won't shame them even if I should. It's fine if it suits you.

As for the noise, I'm pretty sure that mechanical are always a bit louder than regular keyboards. Some types of "springs" can be quiet, but never as quiet as your own current keyboard.

The distinction that helped me think about this is between moving the function and moving the physical key. Remapping can change what a key does, but it cannot move where your thumb lands, so if the issue is reach distance rather than which label is where, remapping alone may still feel awkward. One cheap test is to remap a key that is already under your thumb to the function you use most, use it for a few days, and see whether the problem goes away or whether you still miss the old spacing. If you still miss the spacing, look specifically at the bottom-row layout in the specification, not just photos, because spacebar length and modifier sizes decide whether a four-key, spacebar, three-key arrangement is even possible on that board. That is a much narrower filter than general layout photos, and it saves a lot of trial and error.

As far as I am aware, Royal Kludge boards have never been QMK compatible, they are programmable only with their included tool which wouldn't let you change the sort of thing you're looking for. I suppose that it is possible that it uses QMK "under the hood", but they don't expose it in any way. I'd guess that any claims that it is QMK compatible are from using AI to make translations and promotional images.

No results here under QMK downloads.

https://en.rkgaming.com/download/?type=2

So not officially released.

Did find https://github.com/euwbah/rk61-rgb-sonixqmk-firmware https://github.com/akyuute/rk61-qmk

Though neither list the pro version.

Thanks for all the info! For now, I'm just living with what I bought, but I've noted the layouts you mentioned for my next attempt.

Here's my current VIAL keymap. For now, it's just the default game mappings, plus one or two extra and the Enter key, because I've found it occasionally useful. The toggles are just more buttons, though except for a couple of fun ones (cloak and arming missles) I left those to more administrative keybinds.

I did up the firmware properly, (although cramming VIAL into an old-school Pro-Micro is interesting) so I could change it around if I need to. There's still room for one more layer, but I haven't implemented it yet. I am using "POS" keycaps instead of proper stabs, so I was able to tweak the left thumb in to a mini-cluster. I could eventually do the same for the main Fire button, although the orange Afterburner is wired as a single key (kept me at 40 exactly and made my matrix math tidy).

Nice! What do the toggles on top do in the game? Did you create any particular logic for the key presses and toggle switches, or is it bound 1:1 to in-game hotkeys? Do you have a key to refuel/repair other ships in Wah Ki in a loop hahaha?

I suppose I should take one more picture with the four top screws and the cord (semi permanent), but the caps and layout didn't change after I took this pic.

I'm late here, but while it may create more problems than it solves (it also uses an ISO style vertical "7-shaped" enter key and splits the right side shift), a JIS keyboard shortens the spacebar and does 4-1-5 on the bottom row. If it's remappable you could make the one immediately to the right of space be another space so your thumb doesn't betray you.

Beyond that, "Minila" layouts are usually for smaller boards (60%) but will sometimes have this, and if you can at least go as far as soldering switches, YMDK sells a cheap PCB that has many bottom-row options. If getting left-Alt moved to the right a bit is the main thing, many custom and semi-custom boards support the "Tsangan" bottom row that scooches it so it covers 3/4 instead of 1/2 of 'X'. Finally, the Tex Shinobi is a mechanical keybaord that recreates the layout of a Thinkpad, including the trackpoint.

Or, you could go full DIY. C'mon! You know you want to!

Well, that's just sick.