Sure, while you're learning do what's best for you. Eventually it'll be more efficient if you can blind-type of course. I sometimes impress my colleagues by typing something while looking at and talking to them. ;)

I skipped changing the key caps when I started out with Dvorak.

Looking at the keys and my fingers, if anything confuses me, as they are Qwerty labelled.  I used to be a hunt and pecker and felt like I glanced rather than looked at the keyboard - but I did it quite a lot.  And it can bring on neck ache/problems if you're not careful about it.

One plus side is that if you do look at your fingers and wrists, you might avoid some bad posture/fingering.  And it might be quicker to learn?

My partner is a fast typist, though not a touch typist - she uses most of her fingers though, except for the pinkies.  I enjoy watching her type, she claims that she doesn't look at the keyboard - but she does all the time!  Film yourself!

One nice thing about blind typing is that you can type in the dark.  It's a real bonus.  No need for backlit keyboards.

I'd have thought though that in the long run - you might find it a difficult habit to break.  You'll have to cover your hands.  Or type in the dark.

Typing blindly allows you to monitor what you're typing and correct mistakes as they happen.  I do notice that I need the visual feedback as to what I type.  When I can't see what I've typed (something like dark text on dark background,) it's really quite annoying.

Other times though I can hammer away blindly and stare out the window.

Oh and finally -  I found an old keyboard in the dumpster, and switched the key caps over, after typing Dvorak for over two years.  And honestly - looking at the keyboard makes practically no sense whatsoever - if anything it just confuses me!

The only time I pine for the keycaps is when I'm trying to use the laptop with one hand, probably from bed - but invariably I'm in such a crappy posture - I shouldn't be doing it at all.

I agree that it can suck when you're learning a new layout and you look down to find a specific key that happens to be covered by your finger, but like I said, in in QWERTY I know exactly where every key is; looking down simply gives me better accuracy in the following string of characters to be typed, allowing me to see if my hands/fingers are moving off track and to correct that before it starts causing typos.

I don't turn my entire head down to see; I simply roll my eyes down for a split second and then back up at the screen; it all happens in a split second subconsciously like blinking.  Ask me two seconds after what letter I was looking at and I probably wouldn't even know (because in most cases I wasn't even looking at any particular letters).  People around me probably wouldn't even notice--and I never got yelled at in typing class for doing it, so the teacher must've never seen either. :P (Yes, they had strict rules about looking down at those fingernail polish-covered keys--we were not allowed to do it at all.)

That said... I think it's a reflex I've gained from all the row hopping (especially to Backspace) when learning QWERTY in an attempt to reduce mistakes (which are incredibly annoying when trying to learn a new layout).  If I truly wanted to type without ever peeking I could (and I am able to type in the dark), but if it doesn't penalize my actual speed and actually improves accuracy... well, why not?  That's the way I see it.  And ironically, it does seem to happen more often right before or after doing some more complex maneuvers.

With the heavy use of the home row and minimal use of the bottom row in most modern layouts (ie. less movement leading to a reduced chance of misalignment), who knows--maybe I'll do it less.  I guess my point here is, I am better, faster and just more efficient at adjusting my hands and fingers by sight than by those little tiny bumps.  But I can do either way.

As for impressing others... well, I have no one to impress anyway, and not using plain old QWERTY alone would go a lot farther than typing blindly I would think.  Blind touch-typing is far more common than users of alternative layouts.