alt Hacker NewsKinesis Freestyle Gaming for me. The "traditional" Freestye has a wrist pad that's made out of a material so horrible I returned the keyboard immediately. Yuck. This was years ago, maybe newer models are better? But I'm very happy with the Freestyle Gaming in general.
By the time the 2 came around the wrist pads were an add-on. Like you, I'm not a fan, so I never bought them. I paired it with a Kensington Expert Mouse.