What is the allure of the HTC keyboard?

The HTC keyboard that is on the Incredible has a voice to text input feature, we were supposed to get it on the Eris when they were updated to the 2.1OS but it didnt happen. Ive been using a hacked version of it which is available here.

[MOD] HTC_IME (29th April) v25: Custom sounds and much more - xda-developers

 

In portrait mode, you can switch between regular QWERTY, compact QWERTY (two letters per button), and T9. I prefer T9 for portrait typing since I can never seem to type accurately on those tiny little portrait QWERTY buttons. It also has voice-to-text and it also seems to be better at prediction than the stock keyboard. Also it doesn't hurt that (IMO of course) it looks nicer than the stock keyboard and has more configuration options.

The way I see it, it's not that different from stock but it has a few advantages, so why not use it?

 

i like the look and feel of it better than stock and the black keyboard that came with my ROM personally. holding certain keys for a few seconds do useful functions too

 

I stopped using the HTC keyboard when I bought and installed the Better Keyboard. There are better options with it including voice to text, different skins (including HD), and better response.

 

does the stock android keyboard have compact qwerty?