[cogman10]

I don't think it's an either/or situation.

An application I worked on was a GUI but (at the user's request) we loaded that thing up with hotkeys like no other.

Watching experienced employees operate a gui I worked on was a fascinating experience. They were so fucking fast!

I think the problem is that GUI authors often put hotkeys in as an afterthought.

[amatecha]

The other thing is that GUIs can be very slow to load, limiting the potential speed/efficiency. One of the most frustrating experiences is pressing a series of key commands (or just single keys) that SHOULD have performed a very specific series of actions, but the software lagged behind at some point(s) in the flow and something ended up getting messed up because my series of key presses resulted in a totally unintended action.