I really recommend nativewind to solve pretty much every gripe I have with styling react native, if you still want to give it a chance. Expo for instant cross platform updates by just publishing updated JavaScript (no more publishing updatdes in app store and play store!) Also, yup and Formik for form validation and react query for API calls. With these minimal libraries react native becomes a beast.

As a user of a small TKL keyboard, I can say from my own experience having a small keyboard makes it easy and less strenuous to switch between the mouse and keyboard since they are so close together. I also find I don’t really miss the extra keys, I can do my job just fine if not better without them, because of the added benefit of moving fast.