Its well worth playing with Dvorak if you haven't done so and the layout is already well supported. Just don't expect anything magical to happen.
Somehow for a lot of people saying that something is 'old' is already sufficient to claim it's 'obsolete' and in need of replacement. In your argument, too, the unsubstantiated claim that 'positions are somehow not ideal' is the only hand-wavy bit that you offer beyond the observation that keyboard layouts are 'old', period. That I regard as a kind of psychological ailment, a fixed idea bordering on the pathological. Out whole society is obsessed with that. Today, where simple solutions (a paper ticket for the bus) would suffice, No! That's so 19th century! Instead, let's build a crappy, expensive electronic ticket-vending system that will break down without electricity, and let's issue plastic cards with chips in them!
Personally I learnt to touch type decades ago. 99% of my work doesn't even make me reach for function keys, nor the cursor keys. (Ok, I'm a vim user). The escape key is the same as CTRL-[ so it's very easy to type quickly. I rarely look at the keyboard, I just watch text appear on the screen.
In my experience, it is my thinking, reading and comprehension speeds that slow me up. I can type fast enough when I know what I'm trying to write or program.