Earlier quoted context omitted.
Switching to an American keyboard layout just so programs work isn't very practical. Especially when you have to switch back to your localized layout for correspondence with your non-English speaking peers and colleagues in between. Personally I even prefer the German layout for programming, though I've met a lot of programmers who prefer the American layout because it requires less chords.
I prefer the Neo layout (which is completely different, think: Dvorak), which has excellent placement of all programming-relevant keys as well as German and English bi- and trigrams. Very comfortable to type, but too many programs capture events that break functions of the keyboard layout. It uses left and right shift, caps lock and ' (# on QWERTZ), the key between shift and Z (that's not there on a US keyboard) as w…
My new laptop has a weird keyboard that seems to be based on the US keyset with the right symbol key replaced with the ISO key you're referring to. In other words: angle brackets are right next to the space bar (left ctrl, symbol key, left alt, space bar, angle brackets, AltGr, Fn, right ctrl). Also the arrow keys are lodged in between that and the numpad. It's odd, but I have gotten used to it.
The only problem is finding an external keyboard with the same layout. I found that switching keyboard layouts is extremely bad for my productivity but I don't want to carry around an external keyboard everywhere I take my laptop.
It's... suboptimal.