I'm surprised that everyone here has typed away their answers in response to this question and only considered touch typing's usefulness with respect to coding in an IDE (The op did focus on this, but the final question "am i missing the point entirely" opens the debate). How did a bunch of developers manage to type so many paragraphs about typing, and not mention the typing they were doing at that very moment?
Everyone on this board is growing as a software developer by engaging in typed conversation with other developers about software related topics, writing and responding to posts. You'll be typing here, typing on stack overflow, typing to your colleagues on slack, typing emails, typing commit comments, typing requirements, typing bug details etc etc etc
So much of being a software developer is about typed communication. If you can't do it quickly, it will really impact your work rate.
Pair programming
Another thing not really mentioned so far is pair programming. Perhaps not a lot of places really do pair programming much at the moment but its still a relevant and useful skill for a software developer. As such, a software developer who can work well in a pair has an edge over one who cannot.
As such, typing quickly is key here in order to keep your colleague engaged in the task. There's nothing more frustrating than being sat watching someone search for the 'x' key. Here, knowing the shortcuts is important too.
I'm surprised that everyone here has typed away their answers in response to this question and only considered touch typing's usefulness with respect to coding in an IDE (The op did focus on this, but the final question "am i missing the point entirely" opens the debate). How did a bunch of developers manage to type so many paragraphs about typing, and not mention the typing they were doing at that very moment?
Everyone on this board is growing as a software developer by engaging in typed conversation with other developers about software related topics, writing and responding to posts. You'll be typing here, typing on stack overflow, typing to your colleagues on slack, typing emails, typing commit comments, typing requirements, typing bug details etc etc etc
So much of being a software developer is about typed communication. If you can't do it quickly, it will really impact your work rate.
Pair programming
Another thing not really mentioned so far is pair programming. Perhaps not a lot of places really do pair programming much at the moment but its still a relevant and useful skill for a software developer. As such, a software developer who can work well in a pair has an edge over one who cannot.
As such, typing quickly is key here in order to keep your colleague engaged in the task. There's nothing more frustrating than being sat watching someone search for the 'x' key. Here, knowing the shortcuts is important too.
Excellent point! When it comes to driving a computer, which we do a lot of, proficiency is a big time-saver.