> I never understood this craze of removing keys.

There are (roughly) two families of "smaller keyboards".

Those with a big spacebar, and those with multiple thumbkeys.

Big-spacebar-small-keyboards are like laptop keyboards.

Whereas, for other kinds of small keyboards (such as the moonlander or planck) which provide thumbkeys, I'd say the emphasis is more about "bringing the full functionality of the keyboard to within easy reach of the hands" rather than "remove keys for whatever reason".

On traditional keyboards, the thumbs only get to use 1 key. A big spacebar is such an odd and inefficient use of keyboard real estate.

Whereas, with 2-3 keys each, the thumbs can be put to good use. e.g. It's much more comfortable to press backspace with the thumb, than to move your hand (or reach with the pinky finger).

I think it's a concession that use of particular parts of the keyboard is person and context specific.

e.g. At home, I only very occasionally enter numbers. I very frequently use my mouse, and have large monitors. So I sacrifice slightly less convenient number entry for slightly more room for my mouse(pad) all the time.

At work, I have a full-size keyboard and I spend a higher proportion of my time typing and entering numbers.

I got a keyboard without the numpad due to the looks, but after using it a few years the full sized ones feel too bulky. I have to either move the mouse much further to the right or have my arms bent to the left when typing. Neither of which feels comfortable. I'm sure I could switch back if I needed to, but that extra space is welcome.

I agree entering numbers is better on a keypad though.

I do think a full-size 108-key board wastes a lot of space, but a 96%, similar to what's seen on full-size workstation notebooks (Dell Precision 7000 series, HP Zbook Fury, Lenovo ThinkPad P series) is much more efficient, while still providing Home, End, PgUp/Dn, Delete, Insert, arrow keys, and a full num-pad.

I agree that looks and deskspace is not something to optimize for and number entering is great on the number pad, but the ergonomics expert at my job informed us that shorter hand travel to the mouse is better against straining or something, so not using numpads would help. Or move the mouse/trackpad to the left.

For many people who rarely need to type numbers, the number pad is wasted space. If you're an accountant you probably want one. Maybe even a separate, dedicated one.

I rarely type numbers and find that the "top row" number keys are adequate for when I need to.

> Typing numbers is massively more comfortable (and quicker too) on the number pad than it is with the row of numbers

Let alone than with the row of numbers holding a Shift pressed (some languages require this because they remap the row for extra letters).

Why would you move your hand to the numpad if you can use your orthostaggered "numpad" with a layer right where your hand already is on the alpha keys?