I too find phones to be awful for user experience. It is mainly the touch interface. I view it more of a necessary evil for small mobile computers rather than just being a dumb design. (I wouldn't want to cart around a keyboard and trackpad/mouse with me just to check to messages on my phone or whatever).

But I still agree, the idea that the part of the interface that you see is also the part that you have to put your fingers on is embarrassing.

Have either of you looked at the Unexpected Keyboard from the FDroid store? Special characters and numbers are accessed by pressing a key but swiping in a direction. Like press 'c' but swipe down-left and it prints '.'. It takes some learning but I find it more comfortable than having to switch to different pages for special characters.