I type rather fast as well, but I find dates awkward in ways that a picker solves. First, the mechanics of typing dates requires slashes. But also, it require

I type rather fast as well, but I find dates awkward in ways that a picker solves. First, the mechanics of typing dates requires slashes. But also, it requires knowledge, like "what the hell is today" so I can then work out "what is the date of next saturday". Date pickers do all that work for you. Fuzzy text is fun, and can solve some of those problems as well, but is less intuitive (what is accepted, what isn't).