Back when I played SC2, you really didn't need a high APM to succeed, unlike SC1. SC2 offered some helpful mechanics that SC1 did not, such as the ability to select infinite units at once, or give commands to multiple structures at one. I think Sheth, a high level Zerg player, was famous for having under 100 APM.
Sheth did not have under 100 apm. He was infamous for not having a high apm in the early game (people like to spam keys in early game for many reasons). He still had over 200 apm once the game got going. This is on the low end for pros in sc2.
That may be an ok definition for you, but it most certainly isn't for SC2. I wasn't anywhere near the pro level and I would peak at 300 apm and would spend most of the game around 200. 12 APM is borderline not playing.
Consider it a statement about what I'm looking for in a game. I'm not really interested in competing over who can work their mouse button harder, or in driving myself to excel in giving myself repetitive motion injuries. Those are things that take away from starcraft; they don't enhance it.
I would strongly encourage you to go against your preconceived idea of what StarCraft is (a game where people compete on who's the fastest to bash their keys) and see a professional game and all the strategy it entails, such as in the semi-finals and grand final that will be on today.
Pro players do have valid reasons for having such a high APM (even if a portion of it, maybe 30%, is just "spamming" to keep theirselves active and ready), but you can be an excellent player with rather low APM (~120 maybe?). Why would you need to do 2 action per second? A lot of it is simply building units periodically (e.g pressing 1 then "S" every 10 seconds) but then APM really gets high when there is a battle and you need to give actions to multiple sets of units to get a good engagement.
