If you set the ExclusiveChoiceList property, then the spacebar should not delete anything. In the CellControlsGrid sample that ships with Essential Grid, the combobox in column 3 is set to be a dropdown only and the spacebar does not clear the cell. Here is the code it uses:
gridControl1[rowIndex, colIndex + 2].CellType = "ComboBox";
gridControl1[rowIndex, colIndex + 2].ChoiceList = items;
gridControl1[rowIndex, colIndex + 2].Text = "Three";
gridControl1[rowIndex, colIndex + 2].ExclusiveChoiceList = true;
You can drop the list, by pressing Alt+downarrow, and then the arrow keys can be used to move the selection, followed by Enter to actually select it and close the dropdown.
You can place a button in a static cell if you want to do this, and then catch the click on the button. Attached is a file that does this for a TextBox celltype, but the same technique should work for a Static celltype.
There is additional information in the user's guide section 3.4 where is goes through the celltypes and shows code snippets of how you might use them. You can also see usage in the the CellControlsGrid sample mentioned above. Also, read the Samples Readme file on the Start menu. There are several samples that create celltypes like a LinkLabel, ImageCell, TreePM cell, etc.