For almost 30 years I entered my own drums by banging away on the C2/D2 and F#2 keys on a basic MIDI keyboard. I would start with a looped pattern and then record the Bass part to make the arrangement. I would then go back and re do the drum parts to add the fills and half arsed fancy stuff. Still sounded like a drum machine but 100% better than a loop. I find working this way much faster that spending hours or even days entering data manually.
Takes about an hour from scratch to 90% finished song.
I tried drum pads and found no real difference from the keyboard, other than you can hit them with sticks. Most still would not record a true roll. also harder to control the velocity. I now own a set of Digital drums and that is by far the best way to get a realistic midi part laid down.
It all depends on your own musical abilities. Being a guitar player it took a long time just to even start thinking like a drummer.
They make some pretty cheap digital drum kits these days.
But you will want a keyboard for inputing other midi instruments. So I would start there first.