1. I'm already a decent QWERTY touch typist. Since both keyboards use the same physical arrangement, knowing two key layouts would bugger me up. (I once tried Dvorak on an ergonomic keyboard. It ended up that I couldn't use QWERTY on that keyboard if I tried because of my mind jumbling them up.)

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How long were you using Dvorak for? I've never had a problem with switching between both, though obviously it feels wrong to use qwerty now.

Anyway, the point is you reduce the collisions by separating the hammers. You don't actually have to try to slow the typist down by mechanical means anyway, since that is self correcting (i.e. too many jams, just type slower).

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Exactly - so the keys are arranged on the basis of minimising the limitations of ancient equipment, not on the basis of what is a logical and fast keyboard to type on. So naturally, it's going to be slower than dvorak.