I'm not going to accuse reviewers of dishonesty but I very much agree about the discomfort. I've tried all sorts of placements and tilts and layouts but it's always awkward.
I'm guessing that the discrepancy may be people with different sized hands. I find it such an awkward reach from the home position to hit anything on the middle columns or outside the two large bars in the thumb cluster. Also the 'wing' wrist rests are worthless to me, they're too low for a keyboard so thick.
I keep trying it every week or two because I have such immense buyer's remorse but really I hate it.
The Ergodox's thumb cluster is pretty widely considered suboptimal, I personally manage to use all three bottom keys but the other three are pretty unusable with the thumb (I tend to use them for media keys that I rarely use with the index and middle fingers). Hand size definitely matters, the Ergodox is pretty crap for people with smaller hands in particular.
Now I'm lucky enough to have large enough hands to use it comfortably and I really enjoy the experience.
I also don't use the wristrests at all, but that's true for any keyboard, not just the EZ. I just don't like them.
I'm guessing that the discrepancy may be people with different sized hands. I find it such an awkward reach from the home position to hit anything on the middle columns or outside the two large bars in the thumb cluster. Also the 'wing' wrist rests are worthless to me, they're too low for a keyboard so thick.
I keep trying it every week or two because I have such immense buyer's remorse but really I hate it.