I use a Leopold FC750R with brown mx cherry switches[0] at work. It uses a sound dampening pad and is no louder than a regular membrane keyboard. My coworkers were hesitant about me using a mech at the office when I first got hired but now have no complaints after realizing not all switches and keyboards sound like a type writer. Btw I absolutely love that keyboard and Leopolds in general, I have 3 of them... Bottom line is some mech keyboards are extremely loud, especially if you bottom out on every key press, but there are many options for noise reduction; use brown switches, use a keyboard with a dampening pad, install o-rings on each switch, don't bottom out.
No I don't think it does that either. What it dampens is the vibration caused in the steel plate due to the switches - aka the dreaded "ping" - bottoming out can be a factor of course, but so are switch springs moving back into position or even just banging the keyboard.
[0] https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_det...