Although the "wisdom" that the QWERTY keyboard "scrambled the letters to slow down typing so the keys wouldn't run into each other" is rather widely accepted, the actual truth as told by the early designers was that it was arranged to place the most frequently used characters under the strongest fingers, and to alternate between hands to even the load. Avoiding consecutive letters typed with the same finger was an important goal.
There were a lot of variations in the earliest typewriter keyboards, and the Linotype keyboards were significantly different in part because they had - and needed - more keys than early typewriters.
The QWERTY layout succeeded because it was very good for its intended use. It arguably remains better than "more modern" layouts for any application requiring moderate to high key forces, as was the case with the mechanical typewriters extant when it was developed.
The "electrification" of typewriters, and the resulting lower key forces needed, made it possible to use other layouts, and it did become quite easy for some typists to "outrun the keys" until designs for the the rest of the mechanisms caught up. Some old-timers may remember when the "Selectric" typewriters with the little rotating ball first appeared, as an answer to the higher keystroke rates that could be produced by even relatively mediocre typists with electric (low-force) keyboards.
The Dvorak keyboard is just a different attempt to lay out the keys in a pattern that assists more rapid and less error-prone keyboard input. Just as with any other layout, one must learn - and commit to muscle memory - the locations of the keys; but the "reputation" that the Dvorak layout is always faster is based largely on the inability (unwillingness) of typists trained on other keyboards to compete with "Dvorak experts" offered as "proof" of the Dvorak superiority.
I have known, and witnessed, QWERTY typists who could sustain 1200 strokes per minute - and who could type quite a bit faster than I could talk1 while formatting and spelling everything correctly - on an electric keyboard. With mechanical keyboards, the Dvorak still would likely be somewhat inferior to the QUERTY layout; but if you choose to learn it, it may be some help on electric ones if typing speed is really of significant importance to you.
It's much like switching from oboe to flute to saxophone to clarinet to bassoon. Each instrument has keys that work for that instrument; but the differences in what is being done dictate different key arrangements on each.
1 ... and probably very much faster than I could think (?).