I agree anything QWERTY should not be labeled as ergonomic. I made the transition to the MALTRON layout, and makes a stark difference in the movement of fingers.
Whats wrong with QWERTY?
What
isn't wrong with QWERTY?
As a character layout:
1. Finger travel. Most common characters are not on home row (A is on a pinkie, T is diagonal, T E I N R U all on other rows).
2. Finger and hand balance. Too many words are one handed, left and right hands are not balanced in usage.
3. Most common digrams are awkward, some diagonal, some top and bottom row, some same finger (TH, ED, ON, CE, etc).
As a physical layout (particularly 104/105 key):
1. Overloads pinkies.
2. Uneven up / down diagonal finger movements.
3. Forces unergonomic outward wrist angle.
4. Uses both of the most powerful and dextrous digits (thumbs) for a SINGLE key.
5. Forces off-center positioning and far distance to mouse due to edit and numpad clusters.
6. Forces pronation of both wrists to extreme position.
I could go on....
The physical layout is far worse for ergonomics than the character layout, but the character layout is also not the best, ergonomically speaking, and should not be used on a properly ergonomic board.