Great write-up. Any one who wants to dive way way deeper into keyboard layout optimization should look into the subreddit[0] as well as the Alternate Keyboard Layout Discord. It is a shame that most of the collective knowledge is stuck on a proprietary platform like Discord but there is a wealth of information there. The current more highly recommended layouts for most people (because of statistics, ease of use, comfort, etc.) is a family of layout known as nrts haei named after the homerow for these layouts.
If you want to take a peek at them I recommend these two layouts and their accompanying motivations: Graphite[1] and Gallium [2]. I especially recommend Graphite if you want to optimize your punctuation for programming as well as your alpha keys, since most layouts don't consider moving around punctuation beyond the semicolon and the comma keys. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have.
If you want to take a peek at them I recommend these two layouts and their accompanying motivations: Graphite[1] and Gallium [2]. I especially recommend Graphite if you want to optimize your punctuation for programming as well as your alpha keys, since most layouts don't consider moving around punctuation beyond the semicolon and the comma keys. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have.
[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/KeyboardLayouts
[1] https://github.com/rdavison/graphite-layout
[2] https://github.com/GalileoBlues/Gallium