You can all kinds of keypads on AliExpress that are programmable. Some of them even use QMK.

I’m using the caps unlocked CU7 every day; that’s how i discovered it : same frustration as yours!

( then i jumped onto otholinear keeb and now I’m not even bothered by apple anymore and run omarchy on a second hand thinkpad. Same excitement as when i got my first powerbook in the early 2000s…)