[ShadowMarth]

Easily this is true. Look at the history of games. How has the Dpad changed things? It made them portable, more comfortable, and contributed to the popularization of consoles. Analog sticks? They've done even more. Without them respectably controllable 3D would be grindingly horrible. Sure, you can emulate these on other schemes, but you can't match their perfection, or various uses.