Thanks to all for your feedback, I really feel confort in knowing im not the only one experiencing these issues.
Ed, the stick actually works for a number of programs, and I have no difficulty having MAME detect the stick. If you'll look back, you'll see it's just NEORAGEX that has stick issues, and it seems to be with a number of sticks too. The Fightstick TE I have works well on ZSNES, Street Fighter 4 PC etc, its just that NEORAGEX, the most stabe fighting game emulator I know, is very old and never updated for stick compatibility.