Turning the Hexblade "Patron" into modular powers

[Great Dragon]

I do agree that adding Shillelagh to the warlock list carries risks. Putting the ability to wield a decent melee weapon in an invocation delays it to level 2, though.

This might not be a bad thing, though.
Shows a real difference between the two Gish paths: Start "Warrior" or start "Caster".

The Warlock starting with, say, Quarterstaff (two handed) plus Booming Blade at 1st level means that they are doing 1d8 blunt + 1d8 Thunder damage if the target moves before the Warlock's next turn.

Really, the only way to improve the damage is to have a versital weapon: (two handed) Longsword, Warhammer, or Battleaxe for 1d10 damage; or a Great Weapon for either 1d12 or 2d6 damage.

Sure, everyone else that has that Cantrip (Sorcerer, Wizard) can do the same, but can't Gish without Multiclassing.

Also, Grod makes a valid point, Hexblade's Curse is supposed to supplement the Hex spell.
However, I can see your point with the "Curse spell", since the effects are basically the same:
Both methods require a two-round set-up to achieve.

I do wonder if changing Hexblade's Curse to an Action so that Hex can also be used as a Bonus Action in the same Turn would be ok?