Many keyboards have built-in shortcut keys (whether system or not) so yes. Not sure whether they leverage mostly unused codes from the Keyboard Page of USB HID, use non-keyboard pages, or use something else entirely.

I'd expect many if not most "gaming" keyboards to provide "macro key" though their layout may not be what you want. Productivity keyboards also provide such keys sometimes e.g. Microsoft's Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 has a number of programmable shortcut keys sitting above the function keys.

Do you still want the F1-F12 keys?

If you don't, choose a keyboard with an appropriate physical arrangement (I happen to have [1], which would work for this), and program it accordingly -- any mechanical keyboard lets you move the key mapping around. Optionally swap the plastic key caps around. (You could also achieve this OS-side on any cheap keyboard.)

If you want an additional row, you'll probably need to make the keyboard yourself. The fashion seems to be to reduce the number of available keys rather than increase it.

Depending what you want it for, an alternative is to add an extra modifier key and use that modifier to get your extra characters, "FN+1" etc.

Programming the keyboard to send arbitrary characters depends on the OS and the keyboard firmware. See [2].

[1] https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33006060286.html

[2] https://beta.docs.qmk.fm/features/feature_unicode

A cheap solution would be to buy a macropad or a separate numberpad and then remap the keys. Macropads can be remapped on the pad itself, numberpad usually would need to be remapped on OS-level, but is chaper than the macropad.

Numberpads go for around $10 dollar, while macropads are around $50 dollar.

I once had an IBM keyboard with two very long rows of function keys (I think they were labeled PF1, PF2, etc...) above the numbers. There must have been 30 of them.

The keyboard was a beast. Weighed as much as a Fiat and the fat cable terminated in something that looked like a Centronics connector.

Then one day the computer was replaced by a Wang terminal with a svelte, modern keyboard and it felt like the future was finally here.

I use ms natural keyboard 4000 just because of that - extra row of keys that can be programmed to the liking. It's a shame that it does not have a USB hub (previous version had it) and that newer versions lack this row.

you could get a keyboard with the standard function keys and create a custom keymap where the function keys did the numbers and the numbers did whatever you wanted