Some explanation of the design principles would be welcomed. The workman (https://workmanlayout.org/#introduction ) website is really interesting in this regard, even if you disagree with the end product. [As an aside, the Svaalboard has been my saviour, that and a ludicrous amount of QMK customisation with tap-dance functionality.]
The Svalboard with just the old default QWERTY based layout was enough to save my hands after having tried pretty much every ergonomic keyboard out there. I'll never get tired of recommending this keyboard!
Colemak and Workman are weak layouts. I would not recommend them for children who have not developed the ctrl-x/c/v habit yeh, because they will never understand its pros.