Touch killing the mouse makes about as much sense as helicopters killing airplanes.
I haven't used a mouse in years.
For comfort, imo the whole thing needs to be lower, closer to your legs. If you're using a standing position instead of sitting, just change the position to closer to your thighs.
It seems that you are proclaiming that touch would provide more flexibility at the expense of maximum speed and efficiency. I would actually say it is exactly the other way around: Touch killing the mouse makes about as much sense as airplanes killing helicopters. And you know what, I actually kind of prefer airplanes for most commercial flights just as I would say that touch interfaces are actually faster to use and easier to learn than mouse interfaces.
Of course, I often do need helicopter precision on my desktop... But yay for the iPad for casual gaming, websurfing and communicating.
The helicopters vs. airplanes thing is not a judgment on which is superior - you missed the point; the idea is that when helicopters came around, a lot of new possibilities opened up in flight, some of which were traditionally served by fixed-wings... but in the end both have their uses, and neither killed each other.