A good HWKB can make a huge difference. It changes the way you interact with the phone. Maybe its the early period of having no HWKB but I focus mostly on how I am typing - fixing, moving between words, correcting etc then the wonderful UI that i'm presented with. Almost forced to use the phone on portrait as a landscape view means the vkb pretty much occupies 75% of the screen. Dont believe me? Try having a IM chat on landscape.