/vr/ - Retro Games

I know Quake history behind it, yet his reasoning doesn't make any sense.
He is saying his fingers were short.
So what?
It's still easier to press 1, Q, A, Z compared to Tilde, Tab, Capslock, Shift and Ctrl.
What did he gained with WASD?

What I can't understand is, ASDF is the intended resting position of hand.
ESDF is the natural evolution of arrows to it.
WASD doesn't have any advantages to it other than ergonomical keyboards which weren't really popular, and MMORPGs, which have modifier key presses, which again didn't exist.
Not to mention the added easy to press keys from ESDF is still an argument against modifier key presses.