Beige is not a color. Beige is an ugly color. No one, except computer makers use beige, unless they just want to mess with us. Shame about all that beige.
If Beige is not a color it cannot be an ugly color, it can merely be ugly. Actually a lot of houses are painted in light beige, but I guess one could call it "sandstone" at that point. I've also seen it being used for ground color in pedestrian areas. Not a fan of it on KBs either, though.
However, in my case (and the case for what I suspect is 99.999% of keyboard users out there), things like Ctrl on the bottom row present no noticeable discomfort at all, and so having muscle memory tied to it isn't a problem. Moreover, thanks to muscle memory, that layout is yielding the benefits of "maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems." Changing to something else would be patently counter-productive, and recommending that folks do so would be doing them a disservice.
That is a good point, a lot of "ergonomics" talk with keyboards is proactive, maybe overly so. However, none of us is part of 99% of keyboard users, a lot of us like to do unnecessary changes to their keyboards that don't improve usability in the first place. You won't run around tell all your friends that are happy with rubber domes that they should get a keyboard for 600€, that would be just as much of a disservice.
This whole discussion should be completely removed from what 99% of the users use or do as well. They are not in any way affected by it. What we (and everybody discussing altered keyboard layouts) are talking about is what the best layout is if there was no standard. Muscle memory for me does not matter in this argument.
Well, people might feel that something is more ergonomic for them, and that's cool, but as long as no representative study has been done, you can't really argue either way, it's merely a matter of opinion. Even feeling that it makes no difference is just subjective.
We don't need a study to tell us what the most common keyboard layouts in the Western world are. They are QWERTY-based ANSI/ISO with the Ctrl key on the bottom row. Everyone's muscle memory is attuned to this layout. It is the standard and it is what nearly everyone who uses a keyboard is accustomed to. That's not a matter of opinion.
And it's not what I was saying at all, either. What I was saying is whether a keyboard layout is "better" than another one is a matter of opinion.
Health issues aside, ergonomics are irrelevant when muscle memory has already made a particular muscular action innate, almost subconscious. For anyone who uses the Ctrl key a lot, its position on the bottom row has long since ceased to be awkward, probably around the same time typing in general ceased to be awkward. For anyone who doesn't use the Ctrl key much, or for whom typing is always awkward, I submit that there is no position for the Ctrl key that is going to make any appreciable difference.
It wasn't awkward for me either, but I quickly adapted to moving it to the home row and I like the change. Just because something isn't bad doesn't mean you can't improve it.
This goes for alternate layouts as well. I'm not uncomfortable typing in QWERTZ, but that doesn't mean it's the be-all-end-all solution for me.