[rhet0rica]

It sounds like you're thinking purely about the speed of a skilled typist. Alternative keyboard layouts offer a tangible ergonomic benefit even at lower WPM counts, and can have a lower hunt-and-peck time for novices by clustering frequently-used letters together. (This last effect is particularly pronounced on small touch screens, where the seek time is non-trivial and the buttons are much too close together for any sort of real touch-typing.)

[meatmanek]

I expect dvorak would actually be pretty bad for a phone screen keyboard. All your most common letters are right next to each other, making autocorrect/swipe type's job harder because adjacent letter pairs are much more likely to be interchangeable. (Especially since vowels are on the left side and consonants on the right.)

[jimmaswell]

I remember reaching a really high speed on the keyboard of the original iPod Touch. It actually did feel like touch typing - I didn't really have to look at the on-screen keyboard. I can't pin down exactly what's been missing from newer keyboard apps. Something about the ergonomics and UI came together just right.

[jazzyjackson]

original iPod touch having a 3.5" screen probably had a lot to do with it, with thumb typing a smaller keyboard could be better - finer movements per keystroke. Modern iPhone 14 is 6.1"