[marssaxman]

Your experience is very different from mine!

Using a mouse does not distract me at all. I don't think about it, consciously, any more than I think about the motions my fingers make as I operate the keyboard. I'm not thinking about the tools, I'm thinking about what I'm doing through the tools; my hands move automatically.

I suppose it is like learning a musical instrument. At first you have to learn how to operate the instrument, practicing the motions to build up muscle memory. Then you start learning to play notes through the instrument. Eventually you stop thinking about the instrument, or the notes, because all that has become habit, and you just think about the music you are making; the instrument feels like an extension of your body.

If you have had a long-standing preference to use only the keyboard, and not the mouse, perhaps the mouse feels distracting for you because it is not part of the instrument you have learned to play. Of course this could be a self-perpetuating tendency.