On my Mac I use a combination of floating windows (I use Spectacle to snap them around), Cmd+Tab to scroll through open applications, and Spotlight search to open new applications. Hands never leave the keyboard to find/open the window I want and it feels very comfortable to me.
The main drawback is that I absolutely never see my desktop background, but that’s about it.
The main drawback is that I absolutely never see my desktop background, but that’s about it.