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PM’d you, but I sent the foam one. Can only send one message until you respond, so I’ll try and drop the wooden link here, just to check if it works

Wooden wrist rest

Accuracy drills will still be useful, however, in the case where you are stagnating on speed, it will be essential to focus on pattern drills.

A good way to do this is to start with a set typing lesson. For instance: https://www.typing.com/student/lesson/328/common-english-words

In this case you will attempt to do each screen with perfect accuracy. There are 19 screens in all. Once you've completed them, review the screens and see which ones you've had the lowest wpm in. Drill that specific screen until you see gains of 10 to 15 wpm and move on to the next lowest screen.

The reason why lessons like Common English Words are so useful is that most of these patterns crop up elsewhere. For instance, the "to" combination will be with "into, together, toward, today, toadstool, tool, lotto" etc. The more you automate this combinations with key roll (rather than individual strokes, trying to hit them near simultaneously) the faster you will execute them in other situations.

https://autohotkey.com/

Caps lock as mod, you could retain layout of special keys and just move 'em over to a more central position, or mirror them to LH.

Arrow keys are ass so yeah, mod for ijkl or vim hjkl. You could set mod layer 1 as caps lock single tap for special keys, mod layer 2 as double-tap for arrows. I've been learning vim recently and liberated myself from the mouse, I can see the potential for the sweet returns over time, it might be worth the investment if you're getting into typing/colemak anyway.

Alternatively/expensively, https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/

Something with Cherry MX Black switches I guess

Here's something that looks solid enough, within budget: https://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Keyboard-Windows-Ergonomic-Keycaps/dp/B08CN2H9XH/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Cherry+mx+black&qid=1636759888&qsid=131-8535183-7438828&sr=8-3&sres=B08CN2H9XH%2CB08R8SK4C9%2CB07K56BR7K%2CB08CMK8GTR%2CB07RSWRH...

Very nice gains! I would say slowing down significantly on special characters is to be expected. Since you mention coding, you will be using a lot of special characters depending on the language so it is worth practicing. I have not used this site much, but it has a lot of programming content for typing link that you may find useful.

And finally, to produce and edit code faster, you will want to use shortcuts. You are probably familiar with copy ctrl + c and paste ctrl + v. Some other useful ones are go to beginning of line Home, end of line End and selection of text shift + arrow key. link for more. Unfortunately, some of these keys are far out of reach. Your can however use a text editor or IDE and look up their shortcuts. The other option, (less popular) is to use a script that remaps those hard to reach keys to easy to reach keys.

1. Your ide probably has a vim mode settings that may help if you want to learn the vim way.
   
2. Microsoft released powertoys keyboard manager utility https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys , that can do simple keyboard remapping's. I have not used it, but I assume it would be straightforward for your use case.
   
3. You can use auto hot keys (ahk) https://www.autohotkey.com/ . I have been using ahk and created arrow keys using alt + letters for text manipulation. If you have shortcuts in your editor using any of those may be overwritten though.
   

The commands are straightforward to remap arrows keys using alt +kijl, where the '!' represents the alt in ahk:
!k::SendInput {Down}
!i::SendInput {Up}
!j::SendInput {Left}
!l::SendInput {Right}

There seem to be more github repo's using ahk that have their own keyboard remapping's, macros, hotstrings, etc so I think this is the right path if you are on windows.

Typing properly should be done on a keyboard, not a laptop.
There are plenty of typing websites with sections that focus on capital letters. https://www.typing.com/student/lessons/323/shift-key-capitalization

I practiced with these sites:

keybr.com

10fastfingers.com

You should also follow these rules:

• Use the correct fingers
• Never look at the keyboard
• Sit with a good posture
• Practice daily
• Keep track of your progress

I read this book which pretty much talks about learning new skills. There is definitely something to be said about learning certain skills at a young age. However, the book pretty much says if you put in the effort, learn properly, you can do it. Especially for something like typing.

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011H56MKS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm planning on buying the Logitech K840 mechanical keyboard: https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Mechanical-Keyboard-mechanical-Switches/dp/B071VHYZ62/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=logitech+mechanical+keyboard&qid=1598225734&sr=8-4