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We've been through this one before here. For people who actually touch-type on their keyboards, the touch-pad needs to be correctly centered between the hands whilst they are positioned on the "home row" --> index fingers on F and J.
Yup, you've mentioned that before, but I didn't recall a reason being given. I assumed it was to be able to touch the pad while typing. But I've never heard of anyone using a pad that way - it would require a thumb be used.
I'll point out that you're starting by saying it "need" to be there. The disparity between different machines placement of the pad, even from the same manufacturer, clear proves there's no such need. It's workable in all sorts of locations. Some are just more cumbersome than others and most notebooks are extremely poorly designed.
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Otherwise, the part of one hand below the thumb (what's that called, anyway?) will tend to rest on the touch-pad while typing, producing ghost touches/moves.
Funny, but I don't have that problem with the PowerBook. Maybe I don't type as well as others out there though - or as properly. 
But I haven't heard that complaint from others either - a number of acquaintances are your traditional touch-typists. I can certainly reproduce the phenomenon you describe on this machine, but I have to really smack my hand well into the middle of the pad and make sure it makes contact. It doesn't normally do that with my fingers at the home positions unless I were to bend my wrists into carpel tunnel inducing angles that don't feel natural even for a split second.
My position is that it's a matter of design. That is to say, a pad implementation and position on a notebook that has been poorly designed may very well have the problems you mentioned. But one implemented properly will not (PowerBooks, iBooks, MacBooks and MacBook Pros for instance). I can only imagine what hell it is to use the circular trackpad on a Panasonic Toughbook.
I can't say for sure what aspects of the design remove the effects of the problem you mention, but if you ever have the chance, do note the overall position of the pad on one of the machines I mentioned. It's certainly centered width-wise, but its dimensions and positioning top-to-bottom likely have something to do with it as well. I also find the buttons on most notebooks, not to mention the keys, abysmal. Not so on these.
The trackpad prefs in Mac OS also have an option to "Ignore accidental trackpad input" - though I can't give any concrete examples of how the system works without it enabled (I've always left it on).
Whether I was running Windows or Linux, I'd still use a Mac notebook. There hasn't been a single time in the past five years where I've used anyone else's notebook, regardless of brand, where I haven't felt like throwing it out a window.
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