Coincidentally matching my other desk gear

Close.

it is actually written on the spacebar. this is a NIZ board.
Niz , Noppoo, ABKO hacker, royal kludge, all comes from the same oem, which is NIZ.
Plum is their cherry style boards while NIZ is their electrocapacitive board.

Yup. AFAIK it's the same manufacturer.

I have tried topre. This is the 45g version of the niz ec board (which is newer), so it is actually very similar in feel. The key travel distance on this feels slightly shorter compared to the topre, which takes a bit to get used to, but it also feels more immediate as a result. I got this board over the topre because of the layout - I'm a grandmaster StarCraft 2 player, and having the function keys closer together and closer to the number row is actually very useful. I wasn't sure how I'd adjust after using 65g zealios and cherry browns but I can confidently say that I prefer this board over my others now. It's less tactile than the zealios but even for typing, I think I prefer this board as well. The added benefit is that it's extremely quiet, so I can use it at work as well, and I can play at night when my gf is sleeping haha.