Daniel, I'm afraid you are guilty of Argumentum ad populum.

I would really like to see those millions of Gnome users confused by this small white square called a GtkTextEntry that every gnome zealot invokes when asked why keyboard support disappeared from a lot of Gnome features.

What is funny is that the very Gnome Human Interface Guidelines ask not to [...] Limit Your User Base and that is exactly what the Gnome developers do. Stating that a typical Gnome user does not want keyboard is simply false. My own experience let me think a substantial part of Gnome users want both (and the Ctrl-L thingy does not count as keyboard support, it is just crap).

I would perfectly understand Gnome developers prefer it this way, after all it is their choice. But don't say it is for users sake. And be prepared to loose many users with unique needs.