Now the US standard considers that switching is not necessary.
Aha, now I see your point. Yes, you're right -- it would be better to have a "dedicated" key built into the keyboard for alphabet-switching.

I've become aware of that this afternoon while trying to use a "public Internet computer" at the library, because of laptop problems. The PCs are set up for Alt-Shift switching; however, the "language bar" has been enabled for dozens and dozens of different world languages, which are arranged alphabetically in the language bar.

So when I instinctively try to "Alt-Shift" for Cyrillic, it goes instead to Arabic; then to Armenian; then to the Bengali version of the Hindi alphabet; then Bosnian Cyrillic; then Chinese (simplified); etc., etc. Of course, Russian Cyrillic is about three-quarters of the way down the alphabetized list, so there's no point in actually trying to Alt-Shift (I tried once, but hit Alt-Shift one too many times, which took me past Russian to Spanish, and there's no way to move backward in the list!)

But the single most annoying part is that the library computers have not been set up for a simple switch BACK to US-English layout -- so toggling between Russian Cyrillic and US Roman is a huge hassle, and I've resorted to using a "virtual online keyboard." (I know I could set up some sort of Ctrl key combination to do the Russian/English toggling, if I cared to.)