My fingers feel more comfortable by using numbers but also I should mention using relative number line is important to go up and down quickly (pinky on backspace is a bit far vs over 1 key for me to use unlike the distance to :) or holding down ctrl + pnfb. Caps is so close to 'a' that it really doesn't feel strained about 1-3cm movement at most to change modes. Everything is a learning process :) but to say it's more demanding as in quantity sure, however the work that's involved is much less than going a further distance.

and I do believe all the numbers are within home row distance not like <Esc> which way up in the Artic on most keyboards before being remapped.