I can deny the usefulness of widgets. For my use.

I rarely used them. If I wanted to contact someone I never used those widgets, they were mostly there just for aesthetic purposes. They tied my homescreen in at times.

Id usually just launch conversations, iirc.

But I wont deny that some people might have a use for widgets that doesnt fall under my general area of use

I like your contacts->apps idea though! But I have favourite contacts in the phonebook, so not sure if it would be any faster or more useful, really.