Mass-produced ergonomic keyboards are around $400 USD these days. The more of it you build yourself, the cheaper. I can build one for some $15, having already sunk the costs of a 3D printer, soldering station, some switches, some keycaps, a few Pro Micro boards, and lots of time learning about it.
But before my wrists started hurting, I never went for expensive nor weird keyboards. An IBM Model M passed into my life a long time ago, and quietly back out of it after only a few years, relatively unappreciated... Crazy, I know!
This too is what I have found. The emacs.ch folks have been really nice to me, a new user, particularly Louis, the owner.