Tint2 can sit behind applications as a dock.
I have this setup which I'm enjoying
I use plank for favorites only
and tint2 to see active windows
a hotkey to show desktop is handy tho. but you can also click on plank desktop icon.
or I haven't tried this but the hot corner could work too to show desktop.
I'd be curious if we could have fences to sort shortcuts on the desktop like the KDE widget using a method like tint's.
but that's being picky this configuration fully accomplishes all my needs.