Does anyone else feel that left key should always go back one turn, rather than going back to the beginning if you are not currently viewing the history? So if the history window is not currently open, the left arrow would open it and move back one turn.

I would then suggest that the Home key be used to go back to the beginning (this would work whether or not the history window is already open, so it maintains current functionality and actually expands on it). The End key could also be used to move to the current position, while leaving the history window open. Essentially, Home would correspond to the left-most button on the history panel, and End would correspond to the right-most button.

+1, uservoice it.

I agree - the hotkeys now work as you describe. Thanks for the suggestion!