> travel distance, resistance strength as a function of position, row layout.

None of which are determined by being a chiclet, which is just keycaps and a bezel and none of which were addressed in the review or by that poster.

Touchpad does not really have much place in this discussion but since it was brought up, Thinkpads and linux make this a non-issue, use the trackpoint. I bind a key combo to toggle the touchpad on/off and if I am doing something which the trackpoint is not good for I can re-enable the touchpad with a keystroke.