My GF loves this setup and always has the numpad in a random spot on her desk depending out what she's doing. She loves the idea that if she's doing excel stuff she can put it right in the middle of her hands below the keyboard. Not using it all? Move it completely out of the way. Doing Data Viz stuff? She likes it on the left hand side of the keyboard.
Not sure why this option isn't more popular tbh since you can put the numpad where you want it.
Agreed. This is my preferred setup, and over the years I've bought several of the MS ergonomic keyboards the GP mentioned.
With the separate numpad you can position it just above the mousepad so it's still easily accessible, but you have minimal movement distance between typing and using the mouse. To me it's the best of both worlds, and it's strange to me that it isn't more common to sell the two as a package. I suppose the assumption is that people who want numpad will just buy a 90% keyboard and numpad separately.
Sad to say I've only recently come to this realization. It applies to pretty much anything, whether it's building a business or exercise or learning to draw. And if your motivation can't sustain you long-term, change your perspective so that you have a motivation that will let you see it through. "Make something cool and get rich" doesn't take you very far once you step back for a moment.