Contrary to popular belief, the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down,[2]: 162  but rather to speed up typing. Indeed, there is evidence that, aside from the issue of jamming, placing often-used keys farther apart increases typing speed, because it encourages alternation between the hands.[11]

A feature much less commented on than the order of the keys is that the keys do not form a rectangular grid, but rather each column slants diagonally. This is because of the mechanical linkages – each key is attached to a lever, and hence the offset prevents the levers from running into each other – and has been retained in most electronic keyboards.

This is perfection.

Big Pharma is my drag name

Me too. I've used it full time for at least 15 years. Can't touch type on a qwerty layout at all

Practice!

Typing is one of those things that is just experience. Grab a typing test program and put in the time. It took me a few weeks, starting with doing simple things like the equivalent of jkjlj; sets until my pea brain got the minimal amount of muscle memory to be able to use it in the wild. YMMV but I can still use QWERT as well, but it feels weird and not as natural anymore.

Yeah the original reason was that supporting the controller by default was a requirement for "games for Windows live" and the momentum from that saw a near universal adoption.