Huh? Have you hit the ? mark? Gmail's key-bindings are set up to be as fast as possible, and are faster to type than a normal desktop app, as you don't have to worry about eating up characters meant for a text box somewhere. I really suggest you give it a fair shot. I like it a lot better than any desktop mail app I've ever used (and that's been quite a few).
For example: To go to "Starred" hit "g" then "s". To go to an arbitrary label, hit "g" "l" and then you have a drop-down list of labels, with autocomplete. Seems nicer than tabbing about. To compose, hit "c".
Though there's a lot more to UX consistency than keyboard shortcuts...since we're on the topic...I wonder if these Gmail shortcuts are even consistent within Google's own offerings. Anyone wanna look?
For example: To go to "Starred" hit "g" then "s". To go to an arbitrary label, hit "g" "l" and then you have a drop-down list of labels, with autocomplete. Seems nicer than tabbing about. To compose, hit "c".