Your keyboard also doesn't have keys for {}, (), ?, ~ etc., yet you still manage to type them with a shift key.

Same thing here. This isn't even a very extreme case, 40% keyboards also don't have a numrow. Still just as quick to type on if you're used to it, with less hand movement. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea, though.

The issue I see with this is that the {} keys are usually just shift + []. Whereas the Fx keys are often pressed together with some combination of ctrl / alt / shift. So not having the row, that would add another key to the combo. Or make it a two-step process.

I actually have the same frustration as GP. I usually want a 75% keyboard so that I can have my mouse close to it, and since I don't ever use the numpad, that works out great.

But I don't care about the keyboard being actually small, so I would absolutely love some of those "macro keys" like on the gaming keyboards and also direct access to media keys.

Yes, I know you can have layers and combinations, and it might not even be that much slower (or at all) with one of those compact keyboards, but I find it much more comfortable to be able to only push one key with one finger.

I sometimes use my keyboards while doing something else besides "full-on typing" with both hands on the keys. Granted, in those cases I wouldn't be bothered by a full-width keyboard, but having two keyboards is just not something I'd consider practical.

I compromised with a similar keyboard without an F-row.

I configured it so pressing 1 and Q together¹ sends F1. I use this far more often than Fn+1, since I can do 1Q singlehanded/singlefingered.

¹ Actually 1 and ", because Dvorak.

F-Row on those layouts us mapped onto a layer at the number-row. It's good for blind-typing from homerow, but pretty poor for casual typing. I'm not always on homerow, in those moments typing an F-key is cumbersome with layers. It's also missing out on a full row of keys I could use for more exotic mappings, forcing me to use more complicated layers.

Yeah, F12 to bring up the terminal. Doesn't conflict with anything else, is a single key and physically the easiest to move to from the home row.

I like Q-Dir's take on F2, cycles through highlighting just the file name, then just the extension, and then both.

mapped to a layer with a modifier key