Woody, you're right, there is no "official" UNIX layout. But simply based on frequency of use, which do you think should be left of A, caps lock or control?
And yes, I've tried the "normal" layout, and hitting it with my palm doesn't work well for me, at all. Especially since on many laptop boards, it's not the lower left corner key.
Anyway, the point of the question was to find something, like the HHKB, that just had the layout. I'm capable of creating something mostly similar with your average keyboard, and Ripster pointed me towards how to create it completely, at least with (I assume) a Model M.
I understand what you're saying though. But the fact is, emacs especially is just painful on the average board, unless you remap control. Otherwise, you're constantly curling your pinky in a really weird fashion, and eventually it just hurts. You can say this hardly has any ground, and that's fine, you're entitled to your opinion, regardless of how useless it is.
Do software development, technical writing, or similar, and then we can talk. Programming, writing a document in LaTeX (or even just HTML), these are so keyboard centric, and emacs/vi/VS all have useful keybindings, and all of them work better on these "UNIX" style boards (so called because it wasn't until windows and mac that the 101 layout became what it was). And since you should really be using a keyboard that is most comfortable for you to use, that means the argument has MUCH ground, as layout is important to comfort.