Going from the butterfly to the Magic felt absolutely incredible. I now own an M1 MacBook Air (mainly for the better and quieter performace, and the lack of TouchBar), and its keyboard feels about the same as the 16", so pretty good.
After a long time, I was helping my son with stuff on the computer, and as soon as I typed a couple words I was blown away by his keyboard. It's better in every aspect to the newer ones.
Magic Keyboard ranges from good to very good. The 2015's is superb.
I gifted my other old 2013 which had the same pre-butterfly keyboard, erased my data after I had already gotten used to the 2019. I did notice the difference in key travel then. But it didn’t bother me when I went back to the 2019 after. I honestly couldn’t say I’d prefer one over the other, besides current familiarity/muscle memory.
Apple:
.7 mm - butterfly keyboard
1 mm - current mac scissor keyboard
1.3 mm - old mac scissor keyboard
Thinkpads:
1.8mm - T series thinkpads (aka the ones with the good keyboard)
1.5mm - last year's X1 carbon (the thin and light)
1.3mm - this year's X1 carbon
I'm excited to try the new 1mm keyboard.
But it was super-problematic and had mine broken multiple times over the years. If they could make 0.7mm butterfly reliable, that would have been awesome.
Kailh Choc (low profile) mechanical switches have a total travel of 3mm.
Cherry MX switches (and most clones) have 4mm travel. Some clones are a little more or less.
* in clamshell mode;
* on Windows via BootCamp.
According to some reports in the MacRumours forum [0] this is fixed in Monterey.[0] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-is-hot-noisy-with-an...
Edit: Not quite a fix. Apparently they introduced a Low Power Mode that helps bring wattage and temps down by essentially preemptively throttling CPU and GPU or something like that.
Not really a fix then. That may prevent hurting your machine but it’s still not running at optimal performance.
More helpful in keyboard hardware would be greater key travel distance and a sharper tactile snap.
(Trying to solve keyboard injuries with rubber at the bottom of the keyswitch is similar to wearing heavily padded running shoes then smashing heels into the ground on every step, relying on the shoe padding to absorb some of the shock. The better way to avoid ankle/knee/hip injury is to get a less padded shoe and fix the gait to have gentler steps and use the tendons/muscles to absorb the shock instead of cartilage etc.)
I can’t say I’ve ever gotten typing fatigue from any keyboard I’ve used even when being stuck typing for 10+ hours with very little downtime.
Part of the issue with Apple's keyboards is that the activation point is so close to the bottom due to the short travel. Lenovo does this a lot better and it's really a joy to type on. Bottoming the keys out hard is instinctively reduced due to the earlier and clearer feedback.
More importantly than keyswitch design, the keyboard is a pretty bad overall shape for human hands. Laptop keyboards could be improved dramatically with a different physical arrangement of keys. In particular the right half of the letter keys should be scooted an inch or more to the right, and arranged so the wrists can stay straight while typing, the right pinky should be given fewer keys to press, the thumbs and index fingers should have more keys, and in general finger reaching should be minimized.
Training to safely and efficiently use tools is also important, however. Untrained typists have injuries at much higher rate than trained typists, because they develop habits poorly aligned with human anatomy. Same story for musicians, etc. Many people would benefit from more effective handwriting training.
Telling people to sit with their backs straight instead of hunched over or slouching, keep their necks straight, keep their wrists straight while doing fine work with the fingers, (more generally avoid postures with high static strain on muscles/tendons,) change positions every once in a while to reduce/shift remaining static loads, get enough sleep and exercise, etc. is just generally good advice irrespective of equipment. RSI is no joke, and people who make heavy use of computers should make some effort not to cause themselves permanent injury.
But part of this is that I will feel very quickly when something is ergonomically wrong. The butterfly keyboard in particular but also Apple's super flat magic mouse.
On the other hand, it doesn't have to be something super fancy either. Even the basic Microsoft wired ambidextrous (so not officially "ergonomic") mouse serves me well.
The older Apple keyboard (Island style) also suits me. It's not all bad :)