I was also wary of the new keyboard and also didn't (and still don't) either like or use swipe. However, I now love the keyboard having discovered that if you do swipe the first two keys on the bottom row (just drag your finger across the "swipe" and "SYM" keys) that takes you immediately to a wonderful set of arrows for excellent manipulation around text, and copy/paste abilities. Return to the qwerty keyboard is instant by pressing the "ABC" key.
Love it!