I don't really seeing 'thick' keyboards as being a pain-point for anyone buying mechanical keyboards, but the size of the actual board is. A lot of people start with a full board like this, then transition to a tenkey-less board or an even more reduced layout. The Das boards don't offer TKL/Reduced layouts, and even dwarfs most other full-sized boards as well because of that stupid bezel around the board. Das makes good quality boards, but they are just too big and clunky for me; I don't think being thin is going to help that at all.
The only reason I'm using a full sized Das instead of a Filco tenkeyless is simply that the latter are harder to find in the US. In my case, my employer only orders office supplies through certain retailers which limits my selection.
I never use the number pad, and wish more manufacturers would offer tenkeyless models.
This may sound trite, but: Use shortcuts instead of the mouse.
(This is one reason that Emacs and Vim are incredible editors and tiling window managers absolutely rock. There's basically never a need to touch the mouse unless your stupid window manager has decided to defocus the window.)
Sort of an off-the-wall question: Is (VS + R#) usage correlated with increased use of shortcuts? ;)
Btw, I don't think the mouse is altogether useless, but I tend to regard it as a last resort. If only we could actually mandate UIs which required that all functionality could be accessed via the keyboard (and have it actually work). One can dream...
Why not? I have a Tenkeyless (no numpad) keyboard with mechanical switches that I use every day. It takes up a lot less space, and I don't find that I need a numpad (thanks to using a laptop keyboard for many years).
I believe that it has modifier keys to allow access to function keys and the like. I think the idea is that all of the keys can be pressed without removing your hands from home row, so it's more efficient/faster than a regular keyboard once you get the hang of it. Kind of like how VIM purists will insist that you don't need to use arrow keys to navigate.
I switched to a compact version (Poker II) after developing some wrist pain from keeping the mouse so far from the typing position. The mechanical switches tend to hurt my wrists a lot less and the compact layout is ideal (with a bit of customization via KeyRemap4Macbook).
