I use game pads mostly for 80's-90's non-joystick intensive emulation and classic Apogee PC games so I don't really use the thumbsticks (the shoulder buttons are useful for managing savestates and other useful emulator functions though). I do know what you are talking about and I can see playing anything with a thumbstick pretty annoying. You really can't complete a smooth circle like you can with most (if not all) console thumbsticks.