Gosh, I never thought I'd see the day! Hmm, some interesting suggestions though, so let's have a look...

Regarding this one:

QWFDG JLUY;
ARSTM PNEIO'
ZXCVK BH,./

I think the problem with this is that, although people are supposed to type C with their middle finger, in practise they don't. I sometimes observe people typing and anecdotally have noticed most people use their index finger. The consequence of this is that there is an effective awkward CK same-finger bigram. Maybe people could alt-finger it, but I'm skeptical of having K in that position.

There is the Angle Mod of course - which makes it possible to keep the "official" Colemak finger assignment while allowing for the easier motion to C. But some people are resistant to shifting the bottom row over, especially ANSI keyboard users, which does create a dilemma - people have to either use the "wrong" fingers, or the "wrong" key locations.

Also worth noting that it introduces new same-finger BL and PL, but that's partially offset by eliminating LK and LM. On the face of it, you would assume PH same-finger would be a problem too, but according to bigram stats it's not as common as you'd think.

On to this one:

QWFMV JLUY;
ARSTG PNEIO'
ZXCDK BH,./

I think this makes V worse, esp given that some people with will using it with left-control. Might as well switch V and K here, but there's still the potential CK issue as above.

I'd also note that these suggestions change finger assignment, so in that respect they are further away from standard Colemak than Mod-DH is. One of the design principles in DH was to keep standard Colemak finger assignments.

For people who really want to keep ZXCV in place (possibly using "wrong" fingering with index finger for C), I think the old-fashioned D>P>G is a decent option for the left, combining with the H-M switch on the right. Keeps all the original Colemak finger assignments, but still moves D and H from the centre column, and keeps the bottom left row.

QWFDP  JLUY;
ARSTG  MNEIO
ZXCVB  KH,./

The layout is designed for classical touch-typing technique, i.e. typing C with the middle finger. CK isn't a same finger bigram in that case.

Hitting C with the middle finger takes a little practice, but I don't see the Angle Mod as necessary for that.
The Angle Mod makes some shortcuts very strainful to use and is less interopreable with QWERTY as it moves the ZXCV keys.
I recommend the US layout as it is less straining to hit the left Shift, but I don't see why it should be different on an ANSI keyboard.

Yes, BL is worse, but you don't optimise a layout for the sake of a single bigram.

Frequencies (from Mayzner Revisited) are B: 1.48% and V: 1.05%. The letter B is more common than V, and the QWERTY B positions is one of the worst ones. This tries to minimize that.
CK is a bit worse indeed, but it helps take the strain off the right hand.

No, same finger assignments as standard Colemak, i.e. the Recommended finger diagram

Compability with the existing Colemak isn't the priority design goal for this.
This doesn't fix the issues, e.g. right-hand overload, and a lot of bigrams with M, and the QWERTY B position which is used more often than needed.

It's not just I'm, although that's by far the worst offender, and I find it particularly strainful. It's also all the other bigram ME MI MO are all very common.
Exchanging ; and ' does make things better for words like I'll. Here's how it looks with them exchanged

QWFDG JLUY'
ARSTM PNEIO;
ZXCVK BH,./

You could think of it as a new layout, rather than a minor mod.

No we're not going to agree here. Practically all touch typing learning materials I've seen teach to type C with the middle finger. Anyone who's doing standard touch typing tecnhnique will be hitting C using the middle finger. Also, if you hit C with the index finger, you're more like to overwork your index finger. And I think it makes sense to have consistent fingering regardless if you're using a staggered or non-staggered keyboard.

Regardless, even if you type C with index finger becuase curl/angle, I still think it's better overall despite the CK bigram, because you're hitting the B position significantly less frequently, and significantly reducing the AB (QWERTY) bigram. Alternatively, you could still use different fingering just for that bigram.

That said, BL/PL is not ideal indeed. I think it's an overall improvement, but probably needs more testing.

I've been experiencing a bit more strain while typing recently, so I'm experimenting with new layout ideas to see if it improves things.

I find this quite strange. One of the strong points of Colemak since 2006 has been its consistency and how you, Shai, stood by your very solid 1000+ hour work back then and proclaimed the layout ready. We all know there are "a hundred" top notch layouts that could be made, but within the parameters of keeping ZXCV in place, keeping what doesn't need to be changed from QWERTY and not moving keys between hands if avoidable I believe you made a layout as close to perfect as makes no discernible difference. Over the years it's stood its ground based on that very solid work. I really loved the Design post which explains even further why it works so well.

On important stats like same-finger it's been very hard to beat. And when the Workman gained way too much momentum based on a grudge against Colemak's straight home row, that annoyed me because its creator threw so much quality to the dogs to achieve what he wanted – even to the point of foolishly claiming that same-finger "doesn't really matter". On the other hand, I did find that point about the home row not needing to be straight interesting.

What I loved about the Curl-DH mod is that it fixed something that some users cared about while still essentially being Colemak! Which is what I've tried to achieve with all the mods I've made and endorsed. A modular system that can be used on many different layouts really, for those who see the benefit with some or all of the mods. Indeed, that'll break the simplicity of having one installer (and unfortunately, makes implementation more of a pain unless you can achieve modularity by some tricks like I did for Linux and in part have done with EPKL but with much effort) but for many more ambitious users it has been worth it. While still being Colemak!

Therefore we now have a situation where there are essentially the Colemak layout and the Colemak-DH variant of it (and a bunch of interesting little other mods) in use but they're both Colemak and users can pick their preferred mod battery.

So I'm to understand that here, after a 16 years' hiatus, are another two new layouts from the hands of the master? Hmmm. And this time, two more keys change hands and the stability of the V position is now negotiable. (Why not C as well then – it seemed to be holding the max efficiency of Colemak down a bit back then as the Colemak-Hirou creator at the Discord points out?) It's not-quite-Colemak this time, like so many people have had a stab at (my own bumbling attempts in 2007 included, heh). But why is that necessary? Is there a substantial benefit to this that I'm not seeing? Is the great Shai himself now competing with the great Shai himself?
  ლ( ʘ▽ʘ)ლ～ORLY

Ha, yes I hadn't thought about that. I think it depends on whether the context is the finger or the whole hand:  I mean, curling a finger inwards to me means toward the palm, and outward means to extend outward in a pointing motion. But if the context is the whole hand, then inward would mean towards the body center as you say. At least, that's how I would see it.

Since you insist on drilling this rabbit hole:

Seems that 2/3 of Monkeytype users are "angle cheating", making the need to address non-standard typing technique urgent as hell. SteveP and I have trouble getting newcomers to Colemak and Colemak-DH to understand the concept of hitting C with your middle finger since so many QWERTY users have this homebrew technique. How best to address this predicament? Myself, I believe in a proper Angle mod but many newcomers don't understand it.

"What finger do people use to type the letter C?" ~ Fruit @ the Monkeytype Discord

Not yet, it's still experimental

My 2c :-)

P has higher frequency than G so should stay on home row, unless your goal is still QWERTY similarity.

If not,  I would look at rotating ARS to RSA, but that will require more changes, with F and C having to find new spots.

Cheers, Ian

Triple_A, out of interest: Do you use an Angle mod, a matrix board, or a bad bottom row technique? Why is keeping the bottom row intact so important to you that you'd risk using a less optimized layout to keep it that way, while you're still willing to break out and use a nonstandard Colemak mod?

Using EPKL you can quite easily have this layout variant should you want to:

QWFDP JLUY'
ARSTG MNEIO;
ZXCVB KH,./

That's one P-G swap away from Shai's latest proposal, and it has existed in the shadows since 2014 I think. In EPKL terms, it's Colemak-D(pg)H using SteveP's D>P>G switch instead of the standard D>V>B>G loop; that can be edited in the Remap file quite simply although the help images won't reflect that change unless you generate new ones. For the better apostrophe position, use the Sym mod. You may elect to add the Wide mod or not. I very much recommend a proper Angle mod unless you're on a matrix-type keyboard. If you find that odd, my guess would be that you're failing to keep your wrists straight as you should.

Again, if QWERTY X (as C) feels odd to press with your middle finger it must surely be because you're failing to keep your left wrist straight? It's a finger-curling exactly like the one from QWERTY K to comma (Colemak E to comma). Is that motion uncomfortable to you as well?

Some typists use Extend mappings to keep the ZXCV shortcuts in place. Personally, I don't mind the V moving one key over, not at all. I still use Extend mappings for the edit shortcuts, to avoid twisting the hand to reach the left Ctrl key. I never liked using the right Ctrl key for the edit shortcuts. {Caps+Z/X/C/V} is comfortable.

You are not rewiring the muscle memory for your fingers in using an Angle mod. You're repositioning your hand to straighten your wrist so you can avoid the pains of ulnar deviation. The same finger hits the same key, and it's very quick and painless to get used to.

Yeah, you are right about that. I'd liken it to someone 500 years ago saying that every source they encountered said the Earth was at the centre of the solar system. It's just that all those sources are blindly following the same convention, none of them pausing to actually think about it.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that in reality most people type Qwerty C with their index finger anyway. The middle-finger C is somewhat unnatural so has to be force-learned, but it's interesting that people who haven't learned formal technique, end up using their index finger instinctively.

When I started using the angle mod, I had been one of those people typing C with my index finger, and so I did have to learn a new finger for the Qwerty C position, which was tricky. The transition to the Angle Mod should be easier in your case, since none of the keys change fingers.

According to Mayzner Revisited, which is based on a corpus of trillions of characters:
P - 2.14%
G - 1.87%

The P/T T/P letter combinations are quite commmon in English, and especially in tech (e.g. http/apt), and I find them much less comfortable to type in diagonal.