I'm sorry, but I am not a 'thinkpad traditionalist', that's a cop-out. My main laptops used to be MacBook Pro's until about 1.5 years ago, when I needed a more powerful Windows computing machine that was cuda capable, essentially a desktop replacement. There were many options(Dell, HP, etc, etc), but I picked Thinkpad because of the keyboard.
Across the projects I work on I now have over 15 Thinkpads, of all models. Some of those are Edge models with chiclet keyboards which were purchased bulk because they were cheap, and I made the mistake of assuming that Thinkpad meant I would get a good Thinkpad keyboard. If I had to do it over, I would have opted for Y560p's with the pre-chiclet keyboard. I have used the chiclet extensively. It sucks. Even though it's better than any other chiclet out there.
When I'm on a desktop, I have a good desktop keyboard. When i'm on the road, the classic Thinkpad keyboard is the best there is, period.
As for the size argument, my W520 has tons of space, why change that? On a smal machine X220, you will ALWAYS be cramped for space. That is the sacrifice one makes when going to a tiny 12.5" notebook. A few millimeters will not make my hands fit on the X220 palmrest, and is a crappy excuse for removing the signature feature that works perfectly.
Nobody will buy an X230 vs another machine because they can get a few millimeters of palmrest space. Consumers will, however, buy it because it now looks more like a Mac and everything else out there that's trendy.
Both IBM and Lenovo have decades of combined research on keyboards. This is why we have the classic Thinkpad keyboard. Everybody knows that they touted changes like the enlarged ESC and DEL keys.
But now, the argument appears to be: just forget about all those years of us telling you this keyboard is the pinnacle of all our research and is the best out there, and let's change to something completely different that JUST HAPPENS to look like the market trends. What a coincidence.