I’m starting to learn to touch type correctly on a keyboard, but typing something like :q with the pinky finger always feels so awkward to me. Is it worth using it?
Yes, I decided i wanted to learn touch typing a while ago, I switched to a different layout from QWERTY called Coleman, it’s fairly similar but puts the most common letters on the home row or near your first and second fingers, while keeping the position of common shortcut keys like Z, X, C.
I also switched my keyboard to an Ortholinear style which i found helped with my accuracy as i was learning.
Similarly I learned to properly type (which means using your pinkies) with Dvorak back in 2007. I stuck with it since anything is a gain beyond QWERTY & _ on the home row helps with programming & config.
If you haven’t learned to touch type, you may as well use a layout that is gonna strain you less in the long run.