I don't know, smartphones are trilion dollar industry for more than a decade, but I still can't stand typing on it - how is your experience?
Are smartphones with physical QWERTY keyboard better? or available at all?
Touchscreen-everything is the worst legacy of Steve Jobs. It's annoying on phones and has probably killed quite a few people in cars.
More on-topic, I'm also terrible at typing on my phone. I find my self leaving messages unattended to until I can find a physical keyboard from which to reply from.
I am not sure if it is the size of my fingers or the lack of physical feedback, but I cannot type as quickly on smartphone screen keyboards as I could on the Blackberry physical keyboard.
There have been a few Android phones with physical keyboard released in the past few years, but most of them are running older versions of the Android OS and are not / were not supported for very long in terms of operating system updates:
https://www.androidauthority.com/keyboard-phones-845839/
If there was a well-known brand that would get several years of OS updates, I would buy it.
The answer to that is Swype. I bought it about 12Y ago and that paid copy still works on Android 10.
I tried to explain why it's the best here: https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/06/swype_come_back/
I am a big guy: 6'2" (1.88m) and I can hold 5 pint (half litre) straight glasses of beer without the glasses touching. I can hit keys 11 white notes apart on a piano with 1 hand.
Most smartphones and almost all iPhones until the 6+ were too small to be usable for me. A 6.5" phablet is a one-hand phone for me.
Hardware keyboards... I had a Blackberry Passport for a year. Lovely OS, if a bit unfinished. (E.g. sometimes it got hot in my pocket and I had to go hunt unterminated background apps and kill them.) The only Blackberry with a keyboard large enough to be usable. It was much slower than Swype, but much more accurate, so overall less frustrating because I spent less time on corrections.
The only good mobile keyboard ever made was Psion's in the 5 and 5MX. Planet Computers licenced this for the Gemini, Cosmo and Astro. I have a Gemini; it's a wonderful mobile writing tool.
No American device ever even came close to the Psion keyboard. I've tried 'em all -- this is my living -- and they're all toys. Sadly most Americans never saw or tried a Psion.
But it's too big for a modern phone, sadly.
So no, I do not believe you are an imbecile. There are probably large screen keyboard apps but then giving a keyboard apps to interact with everything sounds like a sub-optimal route.
It sucks. I loved the iOS swipe keyboard and after tweaking the dictionary a little I could get up to 60-70wpm. This one I can't get past 30. I'd love a handheld keyboard accessory, something to snap onto your phone landscape-wise.
But then again it keeps me from wasting a bunch of time on my phone and for longer chat conversations I'll just hop on my laptop anyway.
It came with a slideout keyboard. Could type fast, accurately, one-handed, without even looking at the phone.
I also thought the AOSP keyboard did swipe, but it's been a long time since I tried it.