I literally will not ever daily use a keyboard if it doesn't have a number pad.
Any time I'm forced to temporarily use anything without a num pad I feel like I'm driving a car that's missing half it's steering wheel or something. It just feels wrong.
I can input lots of numbers very fast without looking down with a num pad. I cannot do that with the number row. I have to look down at some point and it's much slower.
I've been using a wireless mechanical 100% keyboard for years. Love it so much I bought a duplicate, so I have a spare when it's time to run one through the dishwasher!
Not the same. A functional num pad needs to be in a strict grid pattern to work. The keys need to be column aligned so they can be felt and the num pad used without looking at it.