(Actually, a lot of KDE programs do, I was elated to find out I could use Dolphin as file manager when I was limited by Finder)
I think Kate strikes this really nice middleground. It starts up immediately as just a text editor, but you can push it as far as you want to
$ brew info kate
==> kate: 24.12,9168
https://kate-editor.org/
...I had to install several dependencies through homebrew, ignore some default dependencies that don't make sense on mac (wayland, pipewire, etc), and then it worked.
The build command I used, for reference: kde-builder dolphin --ignore-projects wayland plasma-wayland-protocols wayland-protocols kglobalaccel kpipewire kwayland selenium-webdriver-at-spi baloo packagekit-qt baloo-widgets
Note also there's some mac weirdness with the Dock where some kioworker process might show up as a separate icon. I packaged it in dolphin.app MacOS bundle, gave kioworker a Info.plist with LSUIElement=true, and that got rid of the Dock glitch.
So, I wouldn't say it's entirely painless to install. But if you're sufficiently annoyed by Finder, building Dolphin can be worth the effort.
Much easier and quicker than going the kde-builder route, and it should package applications properly :)
The tradeoff is that it makes simple things simple, and everything else complicated.
I'm uploading a config file on a website. It's in ~/.config, and any reasonable file explorer won't show hidden files by default. In Finder there's also no button or setting to show hidden files. They really can't, it would make the UI complicated.
You can't navigate to a hidden folder by typing its name (let's not get too creative!). The file dialog box lets you type file names, as Jobs intended, anything else is an error.
This won't be news to anyone, as most people will have run into it before. Most people probably remember that the hidden shortcut is Command + Shift + Period. But everything in Finder is like this, and I'm just reminded at every turn that I am the person Finder was specifically not built for.
So, it's just not for me.
You can, actually. ⌘-SHIFT-G in Finder lets you navigate to any folder by typing in the path - even hidden paths. No mortal user would ever be expected to know or discover that, but it's there.
I think my favorite file navigator was konqueror.
Another Mac annoyance is that the launch tool (command period) seems to forget apps. Or worse, shows the app as you type the name and hides it if you continue typing the next letter in the name. Not sure what focus group approved this...
That's Spotlight, and it's become decreasingly useful over the years, including for the flaws you mention. People seem to be relying on 3rd party replacements.
‹digression› Even those aren't helping me much at the moment because in my current macOS, system-global shortcuts — whether builtin, provide by an application, or configured by me — stop working after random uptime until I reboot.
Finder's a ruddy liar, though, happy to tell me 2+ GiB free, then apps unable to save a 16 KiB file because not enough disc space. Allegedly, macOS counts tosh like video screensavers and HEIC desktop images that aren't in-use and came from Apple as "free space", and should auto delete them if space is needed, but I've yet to see it do so. Instead, I'm left manually telling Steam to delete hundreds of MiB just to store that 16 KiB file… . o O ( Yes, I'll be getting an external SSD. ) ‹/digression›