Why did they feel the need to replace analog controls with these weird, inconsistently responsive, difficult to map touch controls when every other console platform had already demonstrated why that’s a bad idea?

I have no idea what you’re talking about. The DS4 had a trackpad that was clearly positioned and intended for menu navigation. Nobody used trackpads as a primary game control input before the SC. That’s not because sticks are some god-given pinnacle of technology but because potentiometer-based sticks are cheap and people are used to them. Analog sticks were always, and still are, a crappy way to control a camera. Building a 1:1 thumb based input source into a controller absolutely was innovative and, like it or hate it, I don’t see how you can contest that. The Steam Deck’s pads are actually pretty great to use.

Playstation and Nintendo and XBox had already demonstrated why you don’t build controllers this way ten years earlier.

Again, what are you talking about? The SC was released in 2015.