My father-in-law here in China uses handwriting input, but everyone else I've seen here uses Pinyin, and it's totally fast and natural for them.

And very true about the English. With some exceptions (of course), folks here maybe know a handful of words at best, and even then, pronunciation is usually pretty rough. People here really aren't using it; they are perfectly comfortable with their Chinese, and why wouldn't they be?

Anyone saying otherwise clearly hasn't been here to see it firsthand.