While it's nice that Unix systems have an alternative (^]), many people don't know about that, and you'd probably be hard pressed to find anyone who prefers it over just <Esc>.
You can use it with both hands on the home row, though. Left pinkie down to Ctrl, right pinkie up to ]. You don't need to move your hand up or rotate at the wrist. So in a sense it's actually kind of an improvement.