The two even have different hinges.
It's possible.
For instance when you buy something on Amazon it might have one sku and best buy has a slightly different sku for the appearance of the same item. It might be as minor as a different preset mapped button on a remote or something internal to the device. It's not unheard of or a mystery that this happens.
It also allows the vendor to get stats on different sales channels for further development / sales. The metrics for each sku form a picture of what works / sells. Focusing on the higher volume sales increases the bottom line. It's a number game.
Even router companies do this appending different variations to the sku to see where more sales are coming from. The sku might also be tied to a region where one device in the US is different from EU. Sometimes in networking due to cryptographic laws certain devices can't be sold under an embargo for the security and thus not including that particular HW / SW in the product being sold to say CN makes it possible.
Hinges and KB's are minor as long as the MOBO/CPU/GPU are the same it shouldn't make much difference unless you really need that 10-key option because you work with a lot of numbers like an accountant. I prefer a 10-key but, it's not the end of the world if I didn't have it.
Bigger issues would be key spacing from one machine to another where some are so tightly together it's an adjustment when you're used to a slight spacing between them. Texture of the keys can also be a bit annoying to deal with switching from one machine to another. If there's a bit more flex in the KB it might be less efficient if you're used to a firmness.
This is why I said go play with each one for 15 mins and then go do something else to let it sink in for a bit before making a decision based on something like a power brick or screen size. 15.6 vs 17.3 isn't that big of a dimension change to take in visually. Going from FHD to 4K though or reverse does make for a difference if you adjust the windows scaling on 4K to gain real estate. Seeing as though they were virtually identical from specs perspective though it comes down to feel / experience. Usually starting off with a Top 3 must haves list narrows things down to a manageable number of devices to sift through. Also, MC doesn't put out on display all 100 options they have in stock in the store to narrow the focus. If you're looking for something particular you usually don't need to get hands on with it. The higher end / niche machines tend to stay in the box until purchase.
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