Apologies for not having the text itself. Also, boy I wish cohost's alt text UI made it easier to transcribe things.
Anyway, in the grand scheme of ahistorical statements, attributing the existence of mechanical keyboards to gamers is obviously not a big deal, it's just funny.
But like, I remember in the 90's and 00's, as someone who did a lot of typing and not much gaming, being aware of the gradual enshittification of commodity keyboards. And like many computer users of the time, that led me to value old keyboards when I had access to them and, once I could afford to buy stuff, picking up prebuilt mechanical boards which were largely marketed at folks who cared about the typing experience.
And NaNoWriMo really did play a surprising part, as it created a lot of opportunities for gearhead turns by procrastrinating writers (I still have an Alphasmart lying around somewhere!) and the nascent class of podcast bros.
And this isn't even getting into the HHKB market segment, since that wasn't my scene. But that goes back to the 90s.
The fact is, people are particular about their tools, and tools for writing -- keyboards, pens, pencils, etc. -- are some of those we spend the most time using, especially those who deal with words, code, and/or numbers for work. So of course people are particular about them! They were all along.
The gaming peripherals folks dipped their toes in the waters in the 00s, but it was years before it became normal for gamer boards to use mechanical switches, and for those mech gamer boards to proliferate to brick and mortar retail.