I'm not sure if it was the keyboard, or the OS, or both, but I found the software on my Palm Pre so much better for doing what I actually want, and in less time, instead of the mindless scrolling it feels like phones now are optimized for.

Agreed. I actually bring a full-size mechanical keyboard with me everywhere I go so I can fire up vim and respond to SMS messages in the most ergonomic way possible, as God intended.

You are laughing and I'm crying. I don't know what is the vim thing but if I needed a phone for a lot of typing 10 years ago, I used to have a rich choice of Qwerty communicators. If I need a phone for a lot of typing today, I use to have a choice of:

a 10+ y.o. Qwerty communicator whose software is able at least to reach my email,

a laptop,

and a touchscreen as an only way to have all the bleeding edge technologies but with stupid restrictions on an OS level.