The laptop approach of the touchpad close to and rigidly coupled to the keyboard is a big improvement as you can move thumbs from the spacebar and back without looking. This is why I use the internal keyboard even when an external keyboard would be otherwise convenient.
This device could be a way to reduce even that friction. Though I think we're better off encouraging people to make sure their apps can be completely controlled from the keyboard (unless of course the app really is appropriate for a pointing device, such as some photo editing).
TrackPoint. You want a TrackPoint.
But the thing in the post might be a better solution if both the keyboard and the touchpad work well. A great illustration of the classic principle: good design compromises in a contradiction, clever design eliminates the contradiction.
[0]https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/ [1]https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/
Their proposed use-case of e.g. phones and tablets (see: already touch-enabled devices) makes me wonder... why use an inferior touchpad on a keyboard when you could just reach up and touch the screen to begin with? Especially with the things they're demoing: moving your cursor to click on something (just tap it) or scrolling (just... scroll normally?). I use a laptop with a "real" touchpad and still prefer just reaching out and touching the screen for most of these tasks already; if I'm not going to use a real touchpad for these kinds of things, why would I use a worse version built into a keyboard (which also probably prevents the keyboard from being as good of a keyboard)?
Using this for a non-touch device or from longer distances (like from your couch) makes so much more sense... especially when you consider how awful mice (and separate touchpads) are on e.g. couches.