A FEW DAYS LATER from the update below: Contact with manufacturer/distributor has been exceptionally slow and spotty. (12 hour response time promised to make things worse.) In my attempts at repair as started below. I bricked it with a bad flash file. I read all the reviews and did see a fair number of QC issues, but rolled the dice. It came up snake-eyes and I'm SOL. For the 2 days it worked, I loved it. Buyer beware and all that. I've my box of scraps pictured below.
UPDATE: As of 30 minutes ago the pad crashed after I pressed the large knob mapped to mute. The LEDs were gone, the display went black and functions ceased. Unplug/replug the 4th LED on the 2nd row would briefly flash green, then fade. No response. After attempt on multiple computers and docs I got the first row of LEDs back and the first 3 LEDs on the second row. The screen is back. Function otherwise seems to be in order. I have reflashed 2 firmwares to no avail on fixing this issue. I'll post again should things change.
This is a component with which to build productivity tools upon. It is NOT a complete and ready to use device. You need to make it your own. Much like Lego doesn't come preassembled nor does Lego require you to build in a certain way; this macropad is your to make your own, even if you need to learn a bit to make it happen. Just what I was hoping for!
So, far, minimal progress. I have flashed a few different firmwares each with its own peculiarities. I settled on https://github.com/thompson-vii/kb16_rev2_vial_fw as it gave me more layers (I've yet to imagine what I'll use them for) and automatic detection with Vial. I've matched this with AutoHotKey (AHK) passing the heavy lifting off to it for some things.
Top Left Key: tap opens VSCode with project1, double tap and it opens VSCode with project2, hold and it opens up vVSCode in a blank workspace, tap and hold it opens up documentation for AHK2.
Sure it took me a couple hours to get here, but I look forward to several more getting my initial setup and then tweaking it more and more as time progresses. I take it as training until my Dygma Defy comes in.