I had a Nokia C5 Symbian "bar-phone" until 2014 as I hesitated moving to modern touch-screen era, I thought the T9 keyboard was more convenient. But touch-screen isn't too bad, I got used to it pretty quickly.
There are however some clear benefits in a physical keyboard (T9 in particular), namely texting while driving... You can actually keep your eyes on the road while texting, which is pretty much impossible with a touch-screen keyboard. Of course texting while driving is a naughty thing to do in general and even illegal in many countries, but it's especially dangerous with a touch-screen smartphone. On my old phone I could generate many sentences with only a few quick glimpses on the screen...
There are however some clear benefits in a physical keyboard (T9 in particular), namely texting while driving... You can actually keep your eyes on the road while texting, which is pretty much impossible with a touch-screen keyboard. Of course texting while driving is a naughty thing to do in general and even illegal in many countries, but it's especially dangerous with a touch-screen smartphone. On my old phone I could generate many sentences with only a few quick glimpses on the screen...