I haven’t been involved in the design/dev of the Keys much at all actually, but the idea for it rose during the release at NAMM when it was seen how excited people were about the DN.
I believe that the “heritage design” simply came to be because of a love of the quirky and unique look of the SFX-6.
I think it’s obvious that the “white void photo booth” pictures doesn’t do it justice, and I think we should get some good music studio shots of it with other gear to kind of see it in context - where it makes a lot of sense.
Workflow wise I enjoy the Keys immensely, working with it for composing is really a joy.
During the Berlin opening I even performed the very first live debut of it - hahah! That was a bit daunting. However, the direct controls are smart too, could map stuff out in cool ways and perform with it in a pretty unique fashion.
I can definitely see how the monolithic design is seen as odd in a vacuum, but I think we really enjoy that it’s a bit different - after all, isn’t that really the Elektron way? 