Keep in mind that the Blackberry existed in a different era where technology was designed to help and empower the user instead of exploiting them and wasting their time. It was a tool rather than an advertising billboard and/or slot machine.

A lot of the problems that make the use-cases you mention more difficult/annoying on modern phones are someone's business model and have little to do with actual form-factors or lack of physical keyboards. E-mails/texts/etc can be made more efficient on today's devices - it's just that it's more profitable not to.