What you just described is pretty much exactly my experience with colemak and split keebs too.
When i was learning colemak i decided to take the time to teach myself proper touch typing at the same time. Now i can only touch type colemak on a split ortho. I cant type qwerty at all on it.
Honestly, if the culture war has been going on this long and the "greatest victory" they can show for it is feeling comfortable using the r slur again, thats just deeply sad for them lol.