Yeah, the arrow key placement does need some getting used to. Personally, it’s never bothered me, but I should note that I mainly use vim and don’t need the cursor keys very often (thanks to vim’s text objects).
By the way, before I switched over to Kinesis Advantage 2 years ago (due to a severe case of RSI), I used MS natural keyboard for quiet a while and I liked it a lot. It’s probably still the best entry-level ergonomics keyboard out there!
The keys arranged in vertical columns has been a God-send for me. It took a week to get used to but boy are they comfortable to type on! That, and for the first time in my life, thanks in part to the key arrangement, I can touch-type every key (alpha, nums, symbols, f-keys etc.).
Exactly my setup as well (two Kinesis Advantage 2s, modded with QMK). I hope the new version either comes with QMK built-in, or the new version of their firmware is at least as good as QMK.
The new iteration is called Advantage360, has contoured key wells (of course), and is fully split (omg, omg)! Kinesis is looking for feedback to finalize some details (link in their facebook post).
My MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) was having kernel panics multiple times a day after having been asleep for extend periods. This was extremely annoying, as you can imagine. I’m happy to report that the Catalina 10.15.5 update fixes the kernel panics for me.
I use my MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) with a CalDigit TS3 Plus Dock and LG 32” 4K monitor. It’s worth noting that using the computer undocked never gave me any problems.