The xfce whiskermenu plugin includes a text search feature that looks similar to the one from Windows. On Xubuntu the whiskermenu is the default "start menu" while in some other distros you may need to add it in the panel settings. Finally, in the keyboard shortcuts bind Super to the xfce4-popup-whiskermenu command, to bring up whisker menu for a text search.
I've had this trigger the popup menu when there is another shortcut that binds the Super key in combination with something else. Say, if I had something under Super+R, then the menu would also open. Though maybe this has been patched out in the newer versions, I remember that issue being the case in an XFCE desktop from 2020.
But other than that, this is indeed a really nice and usable setup!
xcape -e "Super_L=Alt_L|F1"