Well I mostly use cmd or fn + left, right, up, down now and find it a lot more useful, also find myself using cmd+shift and the arrows a lot for selecting to the beginning/end. The thing that took me the longest to get used to is the delete button, I still miss it but I survive by using the aforementioned combinations. I find the overal experience so much more pleasant that I'm willing to put up with it.

Thanks to zimbatm I just found out you can use fn+backspace for delete!