The amount it costs to build a mechanical interface, compared with the absurdly cheap costs of capacitive sensors (which can be found in $0.50 microcontrollers run across a PCB for basically free), means that mechanical interfaces are pretty much dead IMO.

Mechanical interfaces are superior, yes. But touch-capacitive is so cheap that I don't think we'd ever go back.

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Honestly, the Blackberry, Palm Centro, LG Optimus Enlighten were all good items I've used personally. The speed at which I could type / move around on those systems is absurdly faster than the slow, inaccurate, capacitive screens of today.

But I know a thing or two about manufacturing costs. Capacitive is just too cheap to compete against.

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Resistive screens (Gameboy DS bottom touchscreen) have benefits for relatively simplicity and better accuracy in my experience. But you lose on pinch-to-zoom or other multi-digit tracking. There's just been more work on capacitive touch that its the cheapest way to implement things today in practice.