Is there an app that can organise shortcuts?

I am looking for a "launcher" style of app. There are a bunch around, but they all seem to focus on searching for things to launch, often duplicating the stuff that's on the start menu. I don't want that - all I want is a UI that displays a series of shortcuts that I define, so I can launch them.

Putting shortcuts on my desktop would be fine, except that it looks very cluttered, and they are usually hidden behind my windows. Using an explorer window would be OK except that explorer windows have a bunch of UI and behaviour that I don't want. The start menu has the whole search and "recommended" stuff. Putting stuff on the taskbar is fiddly, and there's limited room.

This sort of "button bar" app used to be quite common - there was Windows PowerPro, the old Windows taskbars (specifically the custom ones you could add), and quite a few others. But most seem to have either gone, or are unmaintained and look outdated (for example, not handling high DPI screens).

Am I out of luck? Do people simply not work like this any more?