Well, in regard to using no throttle, ED offers alot of possibilities to set I think quite two hand full of speed settings for key presses, e.g. 25%, 50%, 75%, 0%, etc. if I remember correctly (don't have the config available atm).
On the other hand instead of wasting 10 keyshortcuts to 'finetune' your speed accordingly (you don't want to fly full Speed into the Station and possibly need to brake if some other player comes along) I would prefer a throttle.
Just as a thought if you still want to go without a hotas.