If you're like most people, your keyboard looks something like this:

[![regular keyboard][1]][1]

The keen eye will notice that all but one set of adjacent rows on a regular keyboard are aligned at half-key increments: the top and home rows. That is to say, the number and top rows, as well as the home and bottom rows are nicely aligned, but the home and top rows are not.

I've done a bit of searching and haven't found a single keyboard that looks like this:

[![modified keyboard 1][2]][2]

Or this:

[![modified keyboard 2][3]][3]

I suspect that having the two aforementioned rows nicely aligned contributes to a more consistent keyboard (i.e. every key is evenly spaced from its neighbor), which reduces learning curve, fatigue, maybe manufacturing costs, etc. Consistency is very much a motif in our world that makes using a product that much more enjoyable. Also, the strange staggering offset seems rather arbitrary. Half a key seems cleaner and more thought-out than what currently exists.

What's so horrifically wrong with these designs that I can't find a single keyboard—old or new—with nicely-aligned home and top rows?

  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/BnkvK.jpg
  [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/yue5i.jpg
  [3]: https://i.sstatic.net/3RvyJ.jpg