I’m happy that you like it.
You cut an entire column of the main area and made it more symmetric by doing that!
Yes, that was the idea but mainly to reduce / combine less used keys.
I think your layout should get a proper name, so it can become more widely known.
I’m flattered but we are a minority that like it (I have shown it around already) and it’s not perfect (? key missing), also the layout you see is already a revised one. The original layout was even more radical - especially with 2x2.75u space bars and 1.75u Enter - pain to get keycaps (although these days we have Yuzu for such cursed layouts).
Do you have open-source plate and PCB files for it?
Unfortunately the PCB designer went awol but if you interested I do have spare PCB and plate file or you can even have the whole keyboard that looks like this because I have since moved from integrated numpad (not to so needed any more) and went for utilising left hand more with this compact layout that is an evolution of the original idea but uses “normal” keycaps.