I think that your problem isn't KitKat or Lollipop, but that you are looking for features of Samsung apps on a non-Samsung phone (though actually my HTC offers to open phone numbers from emails in the dialer, using the stock dialer and a third party email app).
You could look for different dialers in the Play Store, and see whether one of those has the feature you want. Though swiping the name sounds rather specific and not intuitive: I'd actually have expected that to remove the name from the call history if it did anything! Have you tried tapping on the number or name/picture in the call history list to see what happens (with my phone tapping the number takes me straight to the dialer, tapping the picture gives me options to call or text).
You could also see whether a different email app gave you the phone number handling you are after. I assume that nothing happens if you tap the number (suggesting that the email app doesn't recognise it as an action) - if something different happens then maybe "clear defaults" for the app it does open will give you the option of changing the behaviour next time.
