Hands never rest on the 3/4" strip of plastic on the sides of the keyboard,
and that space has no ergonomic benefit. The deeper palmrest may have some
benefit, but the difference is very minor.
That space has no ergonomic benefit indeed, but the corresponding space on the palmrest has. When you type, you shouldn't have your arms perpendicular to the space bar, but at a certain, comfortable angle. If your palmrest is not wide enough, this forces your arms to use a different angle (people tend to do that subconsciously), which translates to more chances of RSI in longer run.
Now, I don't say that it's exactly the case with 12" vs. 14" iBook, but I presume it's the same situation with 12" vs. 15" PowerBook. I have a PowerBook 15" which is great, and I tried 12" once, but it was just much less comfortable, for the reason I outlined above.
The only reason the 14" iBook and larger PowerBooks have space alongside
their keyboards is because those large screens are much wider than the
standard Apple laptop keyboards. Now if Apple used that space by fitting
larger keys, or on the 17" PowerBook by including a full numeric keypad,
that would be an ergonomic improvement.
I seriously disagree here. As far as I see, the keys on Apple's laptops are roughly the same size as standalone keyboards, and I see nothing but trouble with bigger keys.
With full numeric keyboard, you'd have to have your hands moved to the left most of the time (for the alphanumerical part), which is just bad for your posture, would probably necessitate moving trackpad to the left as well (bad aesthetics), and your left palmrest would be too narrow, as I mentioned above already.
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