That's an interesting approach, this might just make a better fit than what I've been doing so far!
I've never taken apart a Topre board, but looking at this video video, I'd say it was doable. Fiddly, maybe, but then again, so is opening up every switch on an MX board, too. Take your time, be gentle, pay close attention to what you're doing... You're probably going to be fine.
Fellow Microserver haver, here! Mine did get a Xeon and RAM boost and has been my everything server for years now.
For QMK, my go-to hrm-embetterment came from Achordion. Not sure if that helps OP, but it made hrm amazing for me, and it does the sort of timing tweaks that might help here.
Otherwise, the HOLD_ON_OTHER_KEY_PRESS mode might help.
Same here, so unless something is fully open source, self hostable and preferably federating, I'm not picking it up.
Before opening up or resoldering any switches, I'd short the two pins with something (tweasers or similar) to confirm or rule out the switch itself as the cause.
From the look of things, yeah, the OXO device looks similar enough to a Gabi, just a different filter type and a different (bigger) size. If there's a disadvantage to the Gabi, it's that: it's rather small, so unless you're doing single cups, you'll have to pour in a couple of rounds, making sure your bed doesn't dry out in the meantime, etc. It won't be a problem if you do single cups, so I suppose that's what it's primarily aimed at. Oh, and the type of filters differ, of course, so if you have a strong preference there, that might dictate the dripper/drip-assist you can use.
Either way, yes, the OXO looks to be the same kind of thing, good to hear it works well, too!
Hario could be more popular because Hario, not sure though. I'll ask said coworker if he has experience with other devices (pretty sure he dailies a V60).
As for faffery levels: yes, if that is your cup of tea (ha), that slightly changes things of course. ;)
but I don't really see much difference from manually pooring.
Main difference is ease of use, you don't need to use a gooseneck to circle around, another time, wait a bit, make a pentagram, invoke some eldritch coffee god, pour the rest. You just fill the top resorvoir and wait for it to drip through. Refill until you've hit your water volume.
Basically going the immersion route makes your water touch the coffee longer.
It's not immersion route, afaict, not more so than a regular pour-over. Unless I'm misunderstanding you (or the processes).
It might give you a slight improvement in comfort, but at what cost.
Roughly 30-40 euros, I believe. ;)
Someone at the office brought a Gabi Dripper (or whatever the proper name is). Basically a Kalita Wave compatible filter holder, with a shower thingy on top that you just dump water into.
I love that thing. It makes it stupid simple to brew good coffee, without faffing about, and if you want to take the time or experiment, you can still take the top off and do a manual pour.
The way I see it: it's an addition. I've seen posts about "does this defeat the purpose", and I consider that silly gate keeping. The purpose is good coffee, yeah?
They don't, officially, as far as I know it's always been an "at your own risk, might get your account banned" endeavor.
I'll skip the usual NPC monologue about how a moka pot does not make espresso, period, because the grind and pressure and process are completely different and that's OK... Well, damn, still monologued. 🤣
Anyway, I have a Bambino (which is the absolute low end of things I'd consider) and a moka pot, they're both fun and make decent coffee, but the moka pot is a lot more forgiving than the espresso machine. The amounts of time I got really bad coffee out of the moka pot vs out of the espresso machine are not even close.