Coming from Windows
The feature list matters less than the loop. Four keystrokes, no mouse, back to what you were doing.
On Windows it was: global hotkey, type a fragment, arrow to the result, Enter. The whole thing took under two seconds and never involved the mouse or a window you had to close afterwards.
Three properties made that work, and they are the ones to insist on when you pick a Mac tool.
It answers while you type. Not after a pause, not after Enter. If results appear only once you stop typing, you have to look up to check, and the loop breaks.
It disappears on Escape. No window left behind, no app in the Dock to switch away from.
Enter does the obvious thing. Opens the file. Not "shows it in a panel", not "selects it in a list you then have to act on".
Global hotkey. Whatever tool you choose must register a system-wide shortcut. The usual conflict is ⌘Space, already taken by Spotlight; ⌥Space is the common alternative and is free on a default install. Change Spotlight's shortcut instead if you would rather keep the ⌘Space habit — System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Spotlight.
Instant results. This is where Spotlight front-ends and live searchers diverge sharply. A live searcher cannot answer in 10 ms because it is reading directories; a tool with a resident index can. If the results list lags a keystroke behind you, no amount of configuration fixes it.
Escape and Enter. Both are table stakes and most Mac tools get them right.
Everything leaned on right-click for open-containing-folder. macOS has a better answer, and any decent tool exposes it:
the fastest way to check you have the right file
Quick Look in particular is worth building into the habit. On Windows, confirming a file meant opening it and waiting for an application to load. Pressing Space is instant and dismisses the same way.
The first index is the one part of the loop that has no Windows equivalent, because APFS makes it unavoidable. Start it, leave it, and come back in half a minute. Afterwards the loop is the same as the one you had.
⌥Space is free on a default macOS install and close to the ⌘Space habit. You can also reassign Spotlight in System Settings and take ⌘Space.
Not built in — it is one of the few things macOS does that Windows switchers end up preferring. Pressing Space on a result previews it instantly.
In most tools Enter opens and ⌘Enter reveals. Keeping that split matters, because opening the wrong file is more disruptive than revealing it.
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