Ok here are my thoughts on what I want. Excuse the original panel holes and design underneath but this may help illustrate what I am thinking.

All the buttons are little cardboard circles and the joystocks are solely for size example. They are not the exact ones I'll be using.

The left two joysticks at back are top-trigger for playing Assalt/Robotron etc, next is the DOT spinner (Tron spinner shown) and then a Tron stick where that base is.

At the very upper right and left forward edges are the 1 player coin/start and the 2 player start/coin.

The bottom row is a 4/8 way switchable then 6 buttons, a 3" trackball (which would use the normal player buttons) and another 4/8 way stick with 6 buttons.

Any thoughts on ergonomics of the whole thing? It is not a stretch at all for the back controllers so that shouldn't be an issue and the Tron joystick is out of line of sight of the screen so that should be ok also. Pasue and Esc buttons will be on the back side near with the 1/2 player start buttons are.

I have heard about 'Frankenpanels' and can understand the idea of a clean panel but I would prefer not to have to store and swap multiple panels.