Don't know if Speedy Launcher is a just balance between performance and usability.

No doubt it is really minimal no icons, no auto update applications list, nothing that could waste your battery.

Let me show it's help text:

Tap on an app to launch it

Long press on an app to open its system settings.

Tap ▦ to show/hide app also without search text.

Long press ▦ to show/hide confirm dialog using shortcut.

Every other symbol is a shortcut that launch the app you want with single tap o long p