I have a lifetime/powerpack Alfred license, and i don't use it much, if at all. I have it installed, but in my experience Spotlight has gotten a lot better in recent years, at least to the point where i just use that.
My only excuse for using Alfred is Dash (https://kapeli.com/dash), which integrates with Alfred, but these days so does just about every editor i use (including Vim, Emacs and Sublime Text), so i very rarely find myself using Alfred for it anymore.
BTT does work with the TouchBar, but the "Touch" in the name comes from "touchpad" since it originally was used to add various macros/gestures to the touchpad and mouse. TouchBar support was added later.
Most new Macs come with full-size function keys, including a massive escape key the same size as the tab key. (At least on the en-US layout; can't speak to others.)
Interesting. What other gestures do you use?
I've tried to setup BTT to emulate cmd+tab with swipe right or left but it wasn't a smooth experience so I've made Touch-Tab https://github.com/ris58h/Touch-Tab