Keyboard Layouts

I use the QWERTZ variant of it, as it allows me to use the layering functionality while keeping the current base layer layout. I quite like it

I think that it's handy if you need access to all or most of the characters on a semi-regular basis, otherwise it just seems like it would be quite difficult to remember the layout or build up the muscle memory. You would have to be using all of the layers quite a lot to get a handle on it I feel, unless your caps are marked for it.

Recently started using Neo2 again after a four-year break or so. I'm German, and it's great.

I use helix (i.e. more or less vim-like shortcuts). Navigation works decently through Layer 4. Escape is pretty easy to access through this layer, and the colon character and the arrow-up key as well. In general it seems advisable to also use the bottom row of Layer 4 e.g. for Escape, Tab, Colon, (Semicolon). But here's what for me is the killer config for a decent helix experience:

[keys.insert]
"¿" = ":write"
"¡" = "command mode"
# and the same for [keys.normal] and if you will [keys.insert]

With that, the extremely common workflow of "save file, then run the previous command again" becomes as easy as simply holding down Mod4 and typing, in QWERTY key positions, h y e v. To edit the command before running, I can use h y e w [w w w...], and for running it I can of course also use Return instead of Mod4+v.

On the other hand, for entering command mode in order to type something new, I prefer, in QWERTY key positions, Mod4+z n