I've been using keyboard-based launchers for a couple years now, I really like it. None quite yet feel perfect to me, but Olauncher has lasted the longest: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.olauncher

If you set up a swipe to launch another launcher, you can have all your widgets there, as sometimes that's nice for a multi-app overview of Stuff™ at a glance.