I had t9 on lock back in the day. Write and send a message without having to look at my phone at all. Sure, there was no internet on there, but that tiny Nokia would stay charged for like 5 days and survive a 20 foot drop on cement without a case.
Fun fact: they would NOT survive being dropped into a gallon of polyurethane floor finish :-(
Swipe keyboards makes typing without looking trivial. It’s also not that hard to do regularly. Now, throw in some symbols and stuff and it’ll likely get harder. But touch typing on a modern smartphone isn’t hard at all. I typed this whole comment with out looking at the keyboard, and only needed to “edit” sections I changed my mind on.