I preemptively remapped escape to caps lock since my next laptop probably won't have an escape key. It took about a day to adjust to. Now, I can't see how I ever used escape in the first place, it's so far to reach.

Although now, I keep turning on caps lock when I use other people's computers.

The home row isn’t magic, I don’t get the obsession with it. Our fingers don’t lie in a naturally perfectly straight line—each finger has its natural zone, it tends to stray vertically from the home row.

Well I suppose my fingers normally stay around the home row because that's how I was taught. I suppose it's my mistake for assuming that's how others type!

Nevertheless, esc is still super far away from all the letters which is presumably what you are likely to be pressing.