The Das Ultimate is pretty solid keyboard. I don’t love the cherry blues though, so It’s not really the board for me.

As for the blank keys, I go back and forth. Yea it’s cool and yea, it can help you become a better typer, but if you just want to pick out a single character without your hands being on the home keys it’s a pain. Plus, as you noted, other people tend to hate it.

So IMO it’s a good keyboard, but not my choice.