That is a regretable choice on Apple's part. First, on the US layout as least, there's a series of standard overrides dating back decades. OPT+Q is the rarely used œ (@ is SHIFT+2 on most US layouts), but some are helpful like ® (R), π (P), etc... Second, some apps bind OPT+KEY to commands!

Nope. It's a country/language choice. Not an Apple choice.

It's not Apple's fault. @ being on Q is the German national norm [1].

The problem is people who are accustomed to Windows keyboard layouts (which matches the national norm) - they are accustomed to Alt Gr+Q for @, and the Alt Gr key is on Windows the key right next to the space bar... which means they press Cmd+Q on Macs instead out of muscle memory.

You can put in a Windows keyboard layout that restores your sanity on macOS [1] with only the small re-learning of using right Option instead of cmd, the problem is stuff like Adobe Premiere outright refuses to load keyboard shortcuts if it doesn't recognize the keyboard layout.

[0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_2137

[1] https://jankarres.de/2013/07/windows-tastaturlayout-unter-ma...

The @ on Q is a keyboard layout standard adopted my some languages. At least it's not Apple's design decision.

I'm Icelandic and a programmer. I work with US Ansi layout keyboards. Working with Icelandic ISO layout is horrible when programming. All the "programming" keys are strewn all over the keyboard and hidden under the option layer. I think they did this to make space for the special letters in the Icelandic language. On the other hand in the US Ansi layout the "programming" keys are close to the home row.

Couple of examples, but you can find more if you want to: {} is easily accessible on the US Ansi, but Icelandic ISO it's under option+7 and option+0. ; is right under your pinky on the home row on the US Ansi, but shift+, on the Icelandic ISO layout.

The @ is also on Q on the Icelandic keyboards. Which is absolutely insane, because quitting applications in macOS you do cmd+Q and on windows I think it is ctrl+Q. On windows you have to do alt-gr+Q to get the @ symbol. But on macOS you can do both option+Q or option+2. I use the option+2. I'm not pressing that Q with a modifier combo, unless I intend on quitting something.