@Tadpole: the only way to assign hard buttons to apps is to use the buttons control panel. You can assign 4 long-press buttons, I think (don't have my phone on me at the moment). The ability to assign numbers to apps sounds like a Moto add-on for the Q9C, similar to the way Palm used to create add-on functionality to the WM treos (like the ultimately effective keyguard).
You can also start apps by voice command (if you enable the option in voice command), press the VC key or your BT headset key, and say "start <application name>".
@flancrest (Enterprises? fellow southpaw?)...there's no built-in way to *fully* disable the touch screen, but the built-in WM6.5 lock does somewhat limit the functionality of the screen while in a call. You can actually enable it in-call by pressing start and then the left softkey (or if the phone is locked in your pocket and you answer with BT, it remains locked in your pocket). The locked-incall screen has some on-screen buttons that can still be pressed, but just sitting in a pocket and even moving around slightly rarely results in button-presses.
Hope that helps.