I agree, practice is a huge part of it. Back in the days of type on the old Smith corona very few people owned their own typewriter. Additionally there was no benefit, other than to practice, to type incessantly. Texting is a form of communication, it's totally different. Even typing on a computer is different. If you make a mistake, it'll probably be auto-corrected.
When I learned to type you could try to erase the error with one of those green pencil type ink erasers with a brush on one end. Half the time you tore a hole in the paper. Many years ago I discovered that using white out and then photo copying the original document and carefully aligning it in the typewriter was the cleanest way to make a correction. Of course then came erasing ribbons.
Typing is done for much different reasons now. It used to be a secretary would type notes they or someone else took. Now most people are typing their own thoughts. So the need to not look at the keyboard is greatly reduced. Between that, auto-correct, and the ability to edit, I've seen several people who can type forty or more wpm using only their index and middle fingers on each hand.