When I used it, I didnt notice, but when I used it again years later (after having typed on pc keyboards), ... boy you really need to press the keys, almost hammer them, no more fluent typing. Give it a try (maybe your experience is differen)

Yeah, bad was the Atari 400. The C64 was a dream compared to that. I was so jealous of the Sinclair owners that had ready third-party replacements available for their crap membrane keyboard. Typed a lot of code on that thing though.

The C64 keyboard used 2 cursor keys to implement the functionality of 4 (using shift). Programming with that was a PITA (at least for me).

Ah, right, it was strange when I think of it now, but it didn't bother me then.

My programming was mostly rewriting code from magazines and I didn't have any IDE so arrows were out of the question either way (AFAIR).

I enjoyed the imposing physicality of the C64 keyboard, especially compared to today's flimsy laptop keyboard and cheap external keyboards (disclaimer: never used a good quality external keyboard, I'm sure they are awesome... but they lack the nostalgia factor).

Of course, it's mostly a nostalgia trip. Just like I fondly remember green phosphor CRTs.