Afaict, most folks in the scene end up with something more individual, mostly smaller designs, often with a bit more column stagger and/or splay.

I feel like 34-36 keys is the sweet spot for most.

Now the recommendation depends a bit on how much time you wanna spend with iteration of the keymap and physical layout. If you just wanna get a new keeb asap, then the moonlander is certainly an option.

I'd recommend browsing the other posts a bit and also check out what vendors on your continent can offer if you don't wanna build yourself.

Anything by Beekeeb if you're new to this. It'll end up around the same price or cheaper than a moonlander, and will be much more ergonomic in the long run.

I got the Piantor and I'm happy with it, but I've also got my eye on the wireless Chocofi.

The Ortho split means you can put the numbers on a numpad layer on the right hand if you want, so you won't need a number row, and you can easily fit your 104 keys into 3 layers on a 42key keyboard - the math checks out.

For me it's the Sofle

The starting point is whether you need an ergo keyboard. Is there some specific pain point out fatigue you want to alleviate? Are there some parameters you need to fix first?

The next obligatory step, assuming you need (or want for whatever reason) an ergo keyboard, is a visit here: https://jhelvy.shinyapps.io/splitkbcompare/

Select interesting layouts, print them 1:1 scale and try placing your fingers on the print. Then you will see whether the Moonlander us for you (maybe you need to fold the sheet along the thumb cluster hinge, in the case of this keyboard), or if some other 2d layout is better.

(There will remain the question whether a 3d key well would not work better, à la kinesis advantage/dactyl/glove80/…)