In IT2007 you can go directly to home screen by holding home key, which is faster than what you suggest. You can also reduce the time how long you need to hold the home key if default is too long. You can even switch those two actions to the state like it was in IT2006 i.e. short home key press goes to home screen, longer press pops up the menu. Both can be configured by editing /etc/mce/mce.ini

Long press timeout is 'HomeKeyLongDelay', default is 800msec, 300 is fine for me. Actions are 'HomeKeyShortAction' and 'HomeKeyLongAction'.