Like most computer users, I suspect, I'm a fan of keyboard shortcuts, and when using a new piece of software I always make an effort to learn the relevant ones - the ones I'm likely to need.

Adobe Lightroom Classic has a multitude of keyboard shortcuts, covering most of the actions you might need - Export, Make a Virtual Copy, Convert to B&W, and so on. BUT BUT it offers no keyboard shortcuts for the likes of Exposure, Saturation, Highlights, Shadows and Sharpness, to name but a few. So while you can more or less manage your Lightroom work with shortcuts, there are none for image adjustment.

LR shares this with just about any other photo management software with the notable exception of Capture One, in which you can set up your own. For example you can set Exposure to Q to increase, A to decrease; Highlights to E/D, Texture to 9/8 - and so on. Scroll to bottom of page to see how I've set up my Stream Deck to work with Capture One

But quite a few years ago I discovered LR Control, by Peltmade. This LR plugin lets you attach a MIDI controller to the computer and then set up and assign actions to each slider or knob or button. It works extremely well, and in a general editing session you will hardly touch either keyboard or mouse(*). I started using LRControl with a massive heavy old controller called the Behringer X-Touch Compact:

One of the biggest benefits of using the Behringer is that LRControl automatically moved the sliders to wherever you had set them when going back to an image you had already adjusted. But sadly, the Behringer went to controller heaven and I sought a replacement. This what I settled upon: the AKAI Midimix:

It's a fraction of the size of the Behringer, and requires no mains electricity, just a USB input. Light as a feather.

I set up my new Akai Midimix to taste, and labelled it up using peelable sticky labels, cut to size. This is what mine looks like:

Yes, I know, I've obscured all the original captions next to each control, but that didn't matter, as I have no use for controlling sound editing software. As stated, the labels are peelable, leaving no residue. I added some colour coding to the knobs using Sharpies.

So, pros and cons of the AKAI:

Pros:
Light and small
Needs no mains power
Very quick and easy to use
More buttons than you need.

Cons:
Not motorised, so the sliders don't move to where you had them when returning to a picture
The Behringer's knobs turned infinitely, but the AKAI's only turn maybe 170 degrees each way.
If you edit a picture and set exposure, clarity, sharpness, texture, etc the sliders will not be in the middle now of course. Move on to another picture and those settings are not applied, yet the sliders are where you had left them a moment ago. If you just slightly move a slider then that setting is applied to this picture.

Now we look at the limitations of LRControl plugin, which is actually a very nice piece of software apart from a limitation or two.

There are no settings assignable to the MIDI controller available for some of LR's existing keyboard shortcuts, and this includes Export, Virtual Copy, Copy/Paste Settings, to name but a few so really you'll still be hitting the keyboard quite often. But I use a Stream Deck XL and have assigned buttons on that to provide many of these keyboard shortcuts.

One final thing: you're almost certainly asking why there is no AKAI control set up for Kelvin (colour temperature)? Contrast, for example, I hardly use, so surely I could assign that slider to Kelvin? True, I don't use Contrast, preferring to use Highlights, Shadow and Exposure. This is a bug in LRControl, whereby merely touching the assigned slider or knob causes Kelvin to instantly shoot all the way to the left or right of its range (-100, really really blue; +100, dreadfully orange). The authors of LRControl are aware of this and have said this bug will be fixed in a future release. (*) Thus: mouse for Kelvin!

Using a Stream Deck to control Capture One

I mentioned Capture One up above. I've set up a profile on my Stream Deck to control most of the editing functions in C One. It works, thugh is not ideal. For some adjustments you need to press the associated button a few times to control that setting. Highlights, to name but one as an example, seems to have no effect when you push the button, however, when you watch the slider in C One it IS moving, though in small increments, so, as I say, a number of button presses will get you there, though not as quickly as moving the slider on the Akai under Lightroom. Here is how my Stream Deck profile for C One looks: