Oh please, stop assuming Qwerty or we'll still be stuck with this shitty layout in 500 years!

Heh... I wasn't expecting a keyboard layout complaint as much as a left-handedness complaint, since the latter is bigger problem for more of today's users.

But as I presume you are someone arguing for a more ergonomic layout, I assume you can appreciate Photoshop's ergonomically fortuitous default choices. And as you are someone who likely knows how to remap a keyboard, I assume you are already capable of relocating a shortcut key to an appropriate location and making up an alternate mnemonic to match whatever letter is already there.

using that logic, wouldn't it be better to have "m"ove be triggered with a 'c' or a 'z'. I mean, they're even further to the right than the 'v' on QWERTY keyboards.

It depends on the frequency of use and where the hand is typically located. The index and middle fingers are strongest, so the keys under them are the most valuable. I'm typically chording on the modifier keys and spacebar, so "v" and neighboring keys are quite valuable to me.

I agree that the default tool shortcuts in that area are somewhat wasted; Photoshop seems to have chosen shortcuts more for mnemonic value and got lucky with the Marquee tool forcing Move to the "v" key. Crop ("c") isn't needed with the same frequency as the drawing tools, and Zoom ("z") -- while useful for beginners -- is effectively unnecessary with the ctrl-space and ctrl-alt-space key chords. "x" (exchange foreground and background), however, is extremely useful e.g. for quickly switching between drawing and erasing on black-and-white drawings.