Works great in some situations (I run two dev environments and a couple of test machines as VMs), but not always. I need a physical Mac to do iOS development / builds, so need a USB switch to switch my keyboard and mouse to it when working.

Do you really need video?

My monitors have multiple inputs, so I just use a USB switch for my mouse and keyboard, and then switch the monitors between devices as needed.

Plate and stabs are stock (so screw in stabs, and PC plate).

The stabs are the least rattly that I’ve had so far (although my daily driver for the last few years no stabs, as it didn’t have any keys over 2U).

I’ve had acrylic, and stainless plates on my prior custom builds, and my Ergodox has aluminum plates, and I’m quite happy with the poly carbonate. At some point (when they come back in stock) I’ll probably get an aluminum plate just to check it out, and will grab the Pro => Max sound kit as well.

I’m using the K Pro Banana switches. I’ve run Gateron Browns primarily, but I my Erogodox has the V2 Zealios, and another build has R6 Zealios. The Zealios were a bit heavy for me for all day typing, but I like the banana switches.

I’m using the stock caps for now as well. I’m not entirely sure I love them, but I figured I’d give them some time before switching to a GMK or DSA set.

I have the Q5 Pro, and it’s definitely thocky (and a beast of a slab of aluminum after having a few layered acrylic cases).

The Max is probably a bit less thocky with the extra foam (it has 3 more foam layers than the Pro).

I haven’t used the Shift V2, but for me the extra column of keys and the full ten key, was more important than the aesthetics and adjust-ability of the Shift case.

No QMK specific community that I’m aware of either, but in addition to this one there’s also mechanicalkeyboards@lemmy.ml but it’s pretty quiet over there.