This is not well researched and written. There are many cheap EC keyboards out there. The price premium is due to cult following that predates the recent trend in mechanical keyboards.
> For many years, they held the patent on Topre switches. However, in the mid-2000s, that patent expired. Despite other companies now being able to make Topre-clones, the Topre name was exclusive for many years and gained quite a reputation for themselves.
Realforce is expensive from the beginning because it designed for professional. Its early consumer model in 2005 costs about 20k JPY and latest model costs from 18k JPY. (Since there's little inflation so it can be compared)
