[hyperman1]

This one is fun. Maybe one optimisation worth checking is what's possible if you have to stay alphabetical.

E.g. T9 puts 4 letters on '9', presumably a good choice as 'X' and 'Y' are rare. Would it be worth it to shift the 'V' from '8' to '9'. '3' has 'D' and 'E' on the same key, maybe move the 'D' to '2' ?

[torvaney]

Yes, it's interesting that the T9 seems to have made a slight improvement on my "naive" alphabetical layout. You might even be able to brute-force a solution where the alphabetical constraint is imposed.