Evia - I absolutely agree having them in a straight line is certainly limiting in terms of twisting. For me I went with the Logitech G13 because I am always using mouse look to hunt for critters that need CC, and my keypad is on the wrong side of the keyboard for my left hand. so rather than 1 to 8 in a straight line I have:
[1][2][3][4]
[5][6][7][8]
and then other keys left and right and below for ether things, like NPC Target Cycle, attack, stop song, Breath of Harmony etc; everything needed for combat.