I've been using laptops for 30 years, and I have had three keyboards need to be replaced for 1-3 keys having mechanical problems, plus an HP which got its keyboard replaced four times before being dustbinned.

I've also seen a large percentage of MacBook butterfly switch keyboards require a complete return to Apple, for about 2 years.

Totally fair point on the butterfly keyboards - I skipped that particular model by chance. If dell or anyone else had a design fault,

Regarding the others… respectfully what on earth are you doing to them that you’ve had to replace them that frequently? That’s more often that I replace actual consumeble parts that have real wear like USB cables and the likes.

I avoid eating and drinking in front of the computer (hygienic).

But a little sticky liquid is enough. A drop of something hard is also enough. I was able to rescue a ThinkPad by popping out a key and clean the mechanism with isopropyl. Another one was sadly killed by the power-button, which got defunct. But a 20 Euro keyboard safes it.

Don’t underestimate how much devices get killed by simple stuff like lose hinges, defective trackpads and so on. People are often careful, often not and usually helpless when it is damaged.

The water holes in the ThinkPads existed for…reasons. But it doesn’t help if people tilt them in sheer panic.

I've replaced 6 laptop keyboards on machines I've used ranging from consumer HP and Acer to a number of Thinkpads and most recently a Macbook Air. Some of them I replaced just because I wanted a different layout, others because they were worn out or broken. The Macbook Air keyboard was - of course - in the latter category as all these things seem to end up doing with the Q to O keys going A.W.O.L due to what I consider to be a design problem. Needless to say that the Apple machine was the hardest to fix due to the repair-hostile design. What is a quick 4-minuted job on a Thinkpad - a device known for having good keyboards - is a several hour slog on one of those Apple trinkets involving nail clippers to remove half of the rivets which did not come out of the frame because their heads ripped off. Keyboards are wear items and should be user-replaceable but that does not fit with the Fruit Factory Philosophy which instead insists on replacing the whole top shell. I go this Macbook Air for free because its keyboard had failed so maybe I should thank the FF for furthering the cause of the throwaway consumer society but there is no question here that these devices are designed to live just long enough and no longer and that they often fail on the wrong side of that lifetime.

Short: keyboards fail, quite often. They are wear items which should be user replaceable.

Probably people suffer in silence, afraid in advance about costs or potential hassle. People who use external keyboard may ignore issues altogether. On my old HP Zbook half of the keys at the left side register with issues. But I probably won't even bother with replacing them, until laptop will die completely.