I had the same thought. I also love the trackpoint on Lenovo (previously IBM) laptops.
But once I tries a split keyboard with a layout that really allows you to keep your hands in one position, I realized that moving my hand to a trackpoint or a trackball, and moving it to a mouse is an equal amount of disruption. At that, a mouse is a much more precise device.
You can also check the "J joystick" idea implemented on some really old laptops, where a regular key is turned into a joystick.
Instead of the J key as a joystick, I want to see touch sensitive keycaps turned into a trackpad.
On iOS software keyboard, holding spacebar then swiping around moves the cursor. I’ve read that a blackberry android phone (Key One?) has similar on its hardware keyboard, but I’ve not seen one in real life or seen a video of that feature specifically (anyone know of one?).
I don’t see much about eyeball tracking these days; if I can look where I want the cursor to be, can’t I push a key to put it there? Surely with the rise of camera tech, computing power, and image analysis tooling that’s easier than it used to be?
But once I tries a split keyboard with a layout that really allows you to keep your hands in one position, I realized that moving my hand to a trackpoint or a trackball, and moving it to a mouse is an equal amount of disruption. At that, a mouse is a much more precise device.
You can also check the "J joystick" idea implemented on some really old laptops, where a regular key is turned into a joystick.