I wonder why are you so afraid of a hole on the keyboard. For example, if you used this kind of keyboard layout (but with less empty space at its left and right ends), there could be a hole in the same place as the Esc and Paddlelock key - or on their left side (where you have the speaker grid in the picture). If the Esc would be removed, and is still needed, it can be moved elsewhere on the keyboard. Please note that I mean a straight sliding keyboard, like N900 has, unlike the keyboard accessory of the picture. Thanks to the hole, the keyboard could slide out more than 60% of the shorter dimension of the Jolla phone.

I find the layout of this Qwerty accessory quite acceptable:
- enough space for localizable keys (the - = and Backspace keys can be localized for language variants), The Backpace key can be moved to where you have a "magnifier glass" symbol.
- enough modifier keys on the bottom row of keys
- spacebar in the middle
- four arrow keys, which have not replaced essential keys, such as , and .
But I don't like the "mail envelope", "magnifier glass" and "paddlelock" keys, because they have not much to do with text entry. And the Caps key could be replaced by the Shift key.

Sorry if I'm wrong with the place of where the hole for the camera should be when the Qwerty keyboard is closed (inserted) - lately I've not followed actively this thread.