> Also holding down a hardware key to get to accented characters, oh fuck, how is that ergonomic?

I think it's a good addition for when you very occasionally need to type a particular accented character, since you can visually see the options. Of course if you are going to type it a lot you're better off learning the Option key combo.

For instance I would have to look up how to directly type "ł" since I rarely need to type a Polish name... but I can get it in 1 second by holding down "l". Very handy!