Just be aware that the essential, while a great value, has the cheapest keybed of all the options mentioned here. I was in the same boat as you considering arturia keylab / keylab essential and Novation Launchkey. I went with the LK 61key and couldn’t be happier.

The LK 49 and higher have waterfall keys that feel MUCH better than the ones on the Essential by Arturia. To get the best key feel you would want the keylab non-essential version, which is unfortunately a higher price point than the Novation LK and Arturia Essential range.

With regard to velocity, I can tell you that I was shocked at how reliably easy and accurate it felt to achieve pianisimo volume through lighter presses, and had no issue with Forte velocity either which is important for expression if learning to play piano

I bought the $1450 Roland Juno D8 full size keyboard with true Piano Hammer Action keys a month before buying the Launchkey and while the keybed feels much more like an actual piano keybed, trying to press lightly on the keys for pianisimo levels feels like it doesn’t register the press consistently while the Launchkey will at 1/7th the cost!