I personally use auto-shift (long press for shift) on my 34 key layout, but I think most would prefer the one-shot shift.

On my Corne, I hold the S key and then hit H to type {

Both on the home row along with my other “surrounds” I use while programming a lot.

Holding S + …

H = {

J = (

K = [

L = <

Obviously there’s a learning curve but it feels much better. Would be silly to lose sections of my career to injured hands from poorly designed keyboards!