> Most notably, it turned out that having arrow keys on my home row is a great idea.

Those are the original vi cursor movement keys, so when you're in command mode you can move around without leaving the home row (and I suspect it was originally used on systems without arrow keys...). Tried and true for multiple decades. :)

Edit: Actually, it's not the same as vi cursor movement keys, since it uses i for up, instead of having them all on the home row. I didn't notice that originally, but anamexis comment reminded me. :/

> (and I suspect it was originally used on systems without arrow keys...)

This is correct! The vi editor was originally created on a ADM-3A terminal which had the arrow keys on HJKL.

http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys...

If you're on macOS, you can move around without reaching for the arrow keys on a regular keyboard using emacs style movement keys.

https://jblevins.org/log/kbd

Chrome changed something a couple months ago and now some of these do the wrong thing so you have to use Safari.

I have a decent keyboard with a small form factor but I can't get over having to toggle the mode of the keyboard to turn on the arrow keys when I need them (which is annoyingly often in macOS) or using a modifier key. I wish I hadn't had such a hard time getting the WASD keys to work as toggle-able arrow keys because I felt like my muscle memory there could have helped bridge the gap. I should give it another go because I otherwise really like that keyboard.

I know exactly how you feel which is why I feel this is the best compact customizable keyboard around: https://kbdfans.cn/products/gk64-mechanical-keyboard-64key

No gimmicks, just compact with the right keys and 3 hardware programmable layers so you don't have to mess with OS specific settings if you don't want to.

Make the left space bar a function key. Makes it way easier to get at those secondary functions