If neat handwriting is better only with a lot of effort and attention, that is substantially different than being lazy. When handwriting is automatic, letters come out fairly consistently with little attention. Whether diagnosable or tolerated by a school, I personally think it is a real and important distinction. Either way, early keyboarding may help from becoming disgruntled with all of writing due to being penalized or stressed over a lack of automaticity.
I can write neat, if it is the only thing I am doing. It isn't really writing, it is more like drafting or drawing. There is no fine control automaticity in it. While writing neat, I can't be very creative or think deeply or even pay attention to what someone else is saying.
It's probably too early to expect automaticity in a K-1st grader, though. Automaticity is established via muscle memory, due to repetition.
The finer control you exercise up front, the finer tuned your muscle memory will be.
