I sometimes wonder if having learned to touch type on mechanicals* has protected me from RSI?

* carriage return used to be huge honking lever

I'm imagining it on the right side, but it must have been on the left to return the carriage to where the hammers can hit the page at the left margin.

... or you're imagining an RTL typewriter: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2384/6833/products/DSC_026...

It depends on the typewriter. The Remington 12 has the carriage return lever on the right side: https://typewriterdatabase.com/Remington.12.42.bmys

If anything, speaking as someone who has RSI and collects typewriters, you've been spared despite them. The traditional typewriter keyboard arrangement with rows increasing in vertical height as they move away from you is precisely the opposite of what you want, ergonomically.

It's strange to me that so many computer keyboards still have fold-out tabs at the back to emulate this. I even saw an old PS/2 keyboard with terraced rows just like a typewriter! But habit is a powerful thing. Pardon the tangent, but we're using an 1870s design whose main constraints were making room for key levers to travel up and down (which is also why we have staggered keys instead of an ortholinear grid). The funny thing is that there were decades more of alternative typewriter keyboard designs (look up the Hammond 1 for an example), but the first commercially successful typewriter, the Sholes and Glidden, is the one that won out in the end.

I recall the KSR33 as being quite enjoyable to type on. The machine only required a light touch.

There was a different flow to programming on continuous paper where you could easily look back over your work. I would tear off the program to study it.