Lenovo use to make a stand-alone "ThinkPad Keyboard" with the same keyboard as in the ThinkPad laptops, even including a trackpoint.
That might feel similar, or better, so I would look for that instead.
I have a desktop Lenovo keyboard that might be the same as the "Essentials" keyboard you're referring to, and yes, that one is indeed quite bad and much different from the Thinkpad keyboards at least.
(It was bundled with a cheap Lenovo desktop PC I bought and customised for my mum some years ago, and she much preferred the keyboard she had before)