I just bought a second hand X240 and am really pleased with it, the only thing it lacks for me is a backlit keyboard.
At the surface, backlighting seems largely aesthetic to me; I have muscle memory of my keyboard layout and do not need to reference the keys at all while in the dark. (A huge tactile cue is the TrackPoint in the keyboard.) I understand that there are lots of variables: not everyone uses their machine as frequently or may not have a keyboard amenable to this.
Does anyone here feel backlit keyboards are essential? Why or why not? What is the consensus rationales?
If you're sitting in a place dark enough to need it, it's not good for you staring at the contrast between the screen and darkness so turn the light on.
Plus I don't look at the keyboard anyway.
Then again most websites I use regularly have been re-skinned to have dark themes since white hurts my eyes regardless of the ambient environment.
I never felt the need to memorize where all the symbols are located since they change locations depending on keyboard type(language) anyway and i can't be bothered to.
"6-row keyboard (backlight function on some models)"