Imagine yourself waking up, getting out of bed. You're suddenly in the shoes of an adult professional (if that's not already what you are), who is about to leave for work. You wash up, don your work clothes, and hop into your car. You notice you're running a little early, so you decide to take the scenic route and enjoy a slow drive.
You're driving down an idyllic country road. The sun is rising off in the distance, casting an amber glow onto the earth. You're enjoying the cool breeze through the windows, as the warm light of the sun comforts you and radies you for the day ahead.
Driving along, you take notice of two large animals standing at the side of the road. Curious, you slow down as you pass, and notice that each animal is being led by a man, the two of whom are embroiled in an amicable - but intense - debate. The two men flag you down and welcome you to their discussion, as they are in dire need of a third opinion, or at least, a mediator. You've got the time and these fellas seem nice, or at the very least, entertaining, so you hop out of your car to hear them out.
This man rides his horse to work. The other man rides his donkey. They're both beautiful animals, well-kept, well-groomed, and as far as you can tell, treated well. This comes as a minor surprise to you, because these men aren't farmers or Amish or anything like that - they appear to be working professionals, just like you, dressed and ready for a day at the office. Intrigued, you come to learn that what began as an innocuous conversation about what it must be like to have to ride the other animal to work every day, became a debate about the relative merits of owning, raising, and driving a donkey, versus a horse. And while both men have made great strides in understanding why the other man prefers the other animal, each man insists that a horse, or a donkey, is the way to go to work!
So you hear them out. And their arguments for their chosen animal are quite sound. You can completely understand why the horse rider loves riding horses. You can completely understand why the donkey rider loves riding donkeys. And you understand that these men both mean well. After each man has gone to great lengths to explain their side of things to you, they give you a minute to think, so that you, a man who apparently rides neither donkey nor horse, can weigh your unbiased opinion and deliver it accordingly. And after mere moments of thought, you turn to the men and say this: "...have either of you thought about maybe driving a car to work?"
Both men laugh. The man with the horse howls, "Have you ever tried to learn to drive a car? It ain't near as easy as just riding your horse!". The man with the donkey concurs, saying, "What's the point? Don't you think cars are a little redundant? We've made do with donkeys for years and years, and we got along just fine!". The other man chuckles and replies, "you mean horses, pal!", at which point they resume their jaunty debate. You chuckle a bit too, hop back into your car, and continue your slow drive, knowing full well that if for some reason, you need to go fast this morning, you'll be able to do so without a second thought, because you're not driving a horse, or a donkey. You're driving a car.
I feel like the man driving the car, whenever I read people online arguing about the relative merits of stick placement, and how the placement of a stick will impact the usefulness of a controller. "Your thumb should be on the face buttons playing most games", and "your fingers should have ready access to the right stick when playing specific popular genres"... these are reasonable statements, if you're of the perspective that the 2 stick, 4 shoulder, 4 face button style of controller popularized fifteen years ago represents the apex of the 'video game controller's' potential. And yet, so many of the problems that people see in one permutation of this style of controller or another, have been solved in recent years, through minor augmentations to the traditional controller, including grip buttons, touch pads, and the inclusion of gyro. And despite this, so many gamers will just scoff at the notion that something new, that must be learned, could possibly improve upon that which they already know, as if they don't remember that that tried and true dual-analog setup itself wasn't something that simply came naturally to most of us to begin with. I'll never understand people who just handwave away potential genuine improvements and advancements to control as 'gimmicks', as though their desire for the entirety of game design on a given platform to conform to an input setup that has proven its own limitations time and time again throughout the years is something laudable.