"Cons:Unremarkable keys; Lacks finesse of a mechanical model"
Show me the 40 USD(the price on amazon) mechanical keyboard. That's like saying this Toyota is shit it's not lined with hand rolled leather that you find a Bentley. Just because they both are keyboards doesn't make them comparable from a consumer standpoint.
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"Membrane offers very little in the way of tactile feedback, and if a switch malfunctions, it's not easy to replace."
But keys are switches there is no reason for tactile feedback, just all the way down on not all the way down off. It's a switch not a Potentiometer. Tactile feedback isn't necessary for normal operation.
Also you're acting like replacing a mechanical switch is easy, mechanical keyboards don't come with plug and play switches, you have to do a ton of things to replace a switch. All you have to do with a membrane keyboard is clean the circuit and check if it's damaged. Plus membrane keyboards are far more robust when it comes to dust, liquids and crumbs. All things mechanical switches can be quite iffy with over time.
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"If you haven't used a membrane keyboard in a while, I'll remind you why you ditched it: Membrane keys are very quiet, as they take very little effort to activate. They feel mushy and unsatisfying. Unlike mechanical keys, which run the gamut from quiet Reds to explosive Greens, membrane keys come in only one flavor."
Mushy: means soft.
Mechanical movement is much harder than say your quiet reds, if anything reds would be perfectly described as mushy a light linear switch with no feedback where the actuation point is. So Mechanical MX Cherry red switch would be musher than any given membrane keyboard. Thus MX Cherry Red are unsatisfying but then again that wouldn't be feeding into the narrative to justify buying expensive mechanical keyboard.
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"Although it's extremely easy to record macros on the fly, we found that the timing was often off. Queuing up a very specific set of skills in Star Wars: The Old Republic did not work, as the keyboard interpreted all of our commands at the same time rather than a few seconds apart. Programming timed macros in the gaming software worked fine, but it's hard to tell exactly what the timing should be outside of regular gameplay."
Under LGS you can set click on the Gear and check "record delays during quick macro creation" for quick macros to record your delays in-between button presses, you never had to add timing to your macros you just never bother to change the default setting. Simply showing a failure to actually try to given the keyboard an honest chance.
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"There's nothing really wrong with the G105, but it's hard to find any reason to recommend it, either. Membrane keyboards are an affordable alternative to a limited range of mechanical options, but if you're going to dish out $60 for a keyboard that feels bland, you might be better served by holding off until you can afford a mechanical keyboard like the $130 Corsair Vengeance K70, or just getting a regular keyboard for $20 or so."
$130 is more than double $60. K70 can find for $110 on amazon G105 can be found for $40.
You also state
"Some people really do prefer membrane keyboards"
Yet this preference is far more important than anything else when deciding to buy a keyboard apparently. Also as shown above the characteristics "mushyness" would perfectly describe cherry mx reds, so i find it hilarious that the K70 you give as an example come in MX red variant. Altough that one is $114 on amazon.
And it is a preference when it comes to games, SC1 pros where brutalizing cheap $5 keyboards pulling 400 apm without skipping a beat. Ofc the only difference is that would burn though them in a month after bashing on them 8+ hours a day more than any one would.
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You want to know the main problem with membrane keyboard and no they are all not the same different synthetics are used and made with different sizes and thicknesses which given different characteristics which you'll never bother to learn.
But the main problem is they wear down and will begin to use less and less actuation force to press them down as they become used, in other-words they lack consistency in actuation force over the long term. To a much less extent mechanical switches suffer this as well but it's less of an extent and thus unnoticeable.
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This self fulling opinionated fluff just reminds me of the idiots asking if they could shove mx cherry switches into their mice because "mice need mechanical switches too!". Those idiots couldn't even understand that mice always had mechanical switches of a different type but essentially leaf springs the same.