Only buy a magnetic keyboard for gaming

I just don't get the obsession with eliminating the numpad. There are tons of interesting looking and innovative keyboards now and they all insist on making them as cramped as possible.

It makes sense on a laptop. But, if I already need to have a clear place on my desk for the keyboard and mouse, I'd rather just use an extra 2 inches to have the full size keyboard with the numpad and arrow keys that are not crammed against the rest of the keyboard.

Same. I use my numpad constantly - Excel, programming, VoIP, calc, etc.

I don't use the number row above my keyboard except on rare occasions or to type the shifted characters. If I need to quickly type a number without looking, the numpad is the only way to do that (for me).

I tried a friends "compact" gaming keyboard, and then to the right of his keyboard was a separate "macro" keyboard which was basically just a numpad... so why not just have a numpad?

There’s a loud category of people that are obsessed with looks and symmetry (over function) that a numpad breaks.

I doubt these folks do any meaningful numerical work, so they do not understand the convenience of the numpad.

My reason for using a no-keypad keyboard on the desktop is entirely functional: reaching for the mouse (a very common motion) is faster.

And as a bonus, I can type numbers faster on the top row than I could on a keypad since I'm using 8 fingers, and my hands stay in home position for mixing with letters and other symbols. Combine that with being easily able to switch to a laptop keyboard and still type at full speed -- I've just never seen the point of a keypad.

Makes me wonder if with practice I could switch from numpad to the number row for numbers. Currently my brain doesn't work like that, but I had to learn how to type letters all those years ago, so it has to be the same. But I have to "unlearn" how I currently type numbers.