If we're starting from the perspective of all things being equal, speech recognition is significantly easier to learn than a keyboard. It is also a cognitively significant jump from combining lines and curves into meaningful units. Compare the number of people who can speak at a rate of over 150 wpm to the amount of people who can type at a rate of over 80 wpm. As you say, keyboarding is unnecessarily cumbersome. There is much to be said for the keyboard.
Keyboards make great paper weights.
They are also good for playing games. I like to use it for the editing process occasionally, but then I tend to use the mouse just about as much. They seem to work very well as single switches to control devices. I was interested by the suggestion that keyboards are on the way out. I'm fascinated with the cognitive aspects of this subject.