Some people actually prefer that layout too, it's an orthographic layout, which is likely less confusing that the slightly off layout of the full size reform. On the full reform the second row is 1.5 units over rather than 1.25, and the third is 2 units instead of 1.75. It messes you up a little at first, but you get quickly used to the layout and even switching back to standard is not an issue.
Many handheld devices in the age of physical keyboards used grid aligned qwerty keyboards, so it's not unique here.
I think you mean "ortholinear". But yeah, I use a 4x12 ortholinear as by primary keyboard. Took a week or two to get used to, but I prefer this alignment to the usual staggered one now. With staggered rows I always felt like I was kind of guessing where certain keys were. Now every key is either under one of my fingers' resting position, or one key away from one (if you count diagonals as one key distance for tab/return).
Many handheld devices in the age of physical keyboards used grid aligned qwerty keyboards, so it's not unique here.