Personally paid for Niagara launcher as I find that to be the far superior launcher to any other I've tried. My second one is Symfonium, the most feature rich and well developed audio player.
Have you recently checked out Lawnchair? They had a few big updates, and it massively improved. Even if you aren't satisfied by the experience right now, I'd recommend keeping an eye out for the project. They make lots of progress and big improvements.
Oh they definitely made some big changes since you last tried it. A year ago, I wasn't really happy either. Now, it's perfect for me. YMMV, but you'll definitely see big improvements.