okay so the best button from a tactile perspective is a Jiaben DA7. this motherfucker clicks. the force curve gives it gravitas, like the kind of button you'd use to deploy your squad of killer cyborg sharks. I keep one at my desk as a fidget.
however it is a bit loud. that's where my second choice comes in, which is actually this generic metal 12mm button that costs about Β£2 on aliexpress. these have a really nice tactile snap, although they don't need as much force to actuate as the Jiaben and they also have a little less travel distance, which makes them a bit less satisfying to me. that's the tradeoff for them being almost silent. a good walking-around fidget! I'm working on making one of these into a keychain.
the next tier would be things that aren't all that much fun as a single button because their actuation force is too light and/or they're too small, but they're satisfying in a long-term functional role. good mechanical keyboard switches and Omron mouse buttons fall in this category. my favourites are Gateron low-profile bananas. I love typing on these things so much that sometimes I just sit at my desk and type nonsense for the stims.
then you have your "upper end of mediocre" buttons. I have one of these 19mm "mushroom" style ones I quite like. the big size and lack of an outer housing make it a fun "OH SHIT" button. you could use it as an emergency stop for a dangerous workshop tool, or maybe a crisis mode button where you push it when you're having an anxiety attack and it texts your friend "please send cat pics"
the lower end of mediocre is mostly taken up by plastic buttons. they usually suck. sometimes the rocker-style ones you find mostly in cars and boats can be surprisingly good, but most of them are unbranded so it's hard to predict whether you'll get a good one or not.
at the very bottom of the list is this motherfucker: the Yumo Electric ABS-series ball head button, and its many clones. they lull you in with a shiny metal casing and you think, that'll be nice and clicky, right? but it isn't. this is the mushiest goddamn thing ever constructed. if you made the Pope push one of these he would publicly declare that God is dead.
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