We all get that the design paradigm is “a secure, sandboxed environment per app”. We just know its a retarded design.

What do you mean lately? I personally repaired a drifting xbox360 controller, and that console was released almost 20 years ago. I assume the controller was just a few years younger than that. I think eventually all potentiometers develop this issue.

I’ve seen those in disassembly videos of the steam deck and the switch maybe. But all the standalone controllers I personally have taken apart were soldered in place. eg. xbox360, dualshock4, some generic third-party ones.

As far as I know its the graphite parts inside the potmeter that wears down.

It happens because from normal use the potentiometer inside the joystick wears out. Usually you can buy joystick assemblies for a 1/10 of the price of a controller, so if you can solder its very affordable to repair them.

If you dont want to solder, you can extend their life by applying a bit of contact spray to the potmeters inside after disassembling the controller. But that can corrode other components, so be careful with it. Still beats just throwing them out.

I like walkmaster. Its a fun silly game with weird physics.