Because it saves, on the aggregate, keystrokes.

For something you do dozens of times a day even a tiny gain adds up over time.

How does it save keystrokes? I press ctrl+L to enter a URL or ctrl+K to enter a search, the same number of keystrokes regardless of which box I want to focus.

I was going to argue that it doesn't save keystrokes when I frequently have to go back and fix the bad guess. But then I realized that you're right - the time saved over the years when I actually do want to Google a specific term likely *far* exceeds the time I've spent fixing the bad guesses.

I guess I'll just accept the flaws that come with it.

How does it save key strokes? To use the location/awesome bar you press Ctrl+L and start typing, to search you press Ctrl+K and start typing...

The vast majority of users won’t use this keyboard shortcut.