I started programming in grade school, and never learned to touch type. I was faster than my teachers, and ended up becoming a professional dev without touch typing.

When I was 29, I got very bad RSI in my right wrist, and re-evaluated my whole computing life as a result: switched to dvorak, removed the mouse/touchpad in favor of keyboard-centric tools, and swapped to a trackball when the pointer was needed. I also learned to touch type.

Of all the changes I made, I think the one with the most lasting value was touch typing. I didn't want to learn it, but I just bit the bullet, and I'm glad I did. It makes doing everything else on the computer very fluid and comfortable. It sounds like the touch typing position doesn't work for you, but the core point is that being able to effortlessly interface with the machine while your eyes can do something else is empowering.

I bothered writing this because I spent decades both before and after learning to touch type, so I feel I have some perspective on how they compare.

Did "touch type" get redefined to "using a very specific set of finger positions for each key" or something? I thought it was just typing without looking at the keyboard...