It is endlessly bizarre to me that we went through a period of almost two decades when we didn't have mechanical keyboards. I hoarded Northgate Omnikeys and Apple Extended Keyboard IIs (and AT and ADB adapters!) and managed to avoid the truly terrible membrane keyboards of the late '90s through the early teens, when mechanical keyboards were almost entirely unavailable. (I was never a buckling spring fan.)
Now, in the last five years, mechanical keyboards are "in". All the cool kids are using them! I don't blame them - and I use a Keychron these days - but seriously, for us olds, it's weird. Why now? Why didn't these remain a thing? Why didn't normal people complain more about the awful membrane keyboards? Strange.