Yeah I play fighting games on both an 8bitdo fight stick and a PS4 d-pad. I’m still not sure which I prefer. Fight stick feels more accurate but I can react much faster with a d-pad.
I’m still not very good at these games though, so I can’t speak for people at a high level!
I love the idea of an open source engine becoming the industry standard, even if just for indie titles. Blender is a great success story and shows that FOSS can compete with industry standard creative software.