While we're at it, can we get rid of staggered keyboards? We don't need to accommodate mechanical linkages from the bottom rows any longer, yet here we are.

As other commenters have pointed out, once conventions and standards have been adopted, there is almost no way of dislodging them. It's a coordination problem. New standards and approaches usually need to be at least a 10x improvement over the status quo in order to be adopted organically.

The same story applies to all areas of human endeavor.