Donkbaca, you arnt most people either... and furthermore, how exactly are you tallying "Most".
There were tons of us who grew up playing entire arcades filled to the brim, all over the world... from the 80s craze days to present.
Classic fans desire the real controllers... and believe it or not, there are a LOT of us out there.
Im guessing you didnt catch the arcade wave till the fighters, hence you came in after all the originality and unique controls went bye bye... and hence started the downfall of the arcade industry.
Your opinion then isnt based on experience, but by your idea of ease, clean design, etc. Not playability, not feel, response, and superior control.
Until you have actually played many of these games with native hardware, such as using a Real MsPacman 4way joystick... then you will never really understand.
I rarely ever see anyone going back for seconds though.
How man people built their main machine are rebuilding them? Do you have those figures?
Most of the problem with control panels with lots of controls isnt the number of controls. Its the poor placement of them... such as when the trakball is too close to the joystick, and you end up smashing your hand into it. Or putting Joysticks too deep, which makes it a strain to use them at length.
These all can be solved with better thought and testing... but as a newbie, you simply dont know that much, and just start cutting away.
A simple example, is that you can place 2 joysticks nearly on top of each other without your arms having to reach deep, or your hands hitting the other stick on accident. Just a slight diagonal placement will make both usable, and infinitely better than straddling the other stick deep into the control panel, where your arms and elbows end up resting on other controls while trying to use it.
Both Swappable and Modular isnt for everyone. Both have drawbacks.
Swappable takes up more storage space, and means more costs and work to build. It also means having to waste game time unhooking and swapping control panels often.
Modular is even worse, in that each piece has to be enclosed. Pieces can be lost, stolen or damaged. You also need even More storage space for them. And it takes even longer to swap out multiple controls, than swapping out a single panel.
Frankenpanels biggest drawback is looks, and poor placement of controls. The latter which can be remedied with better designing. You also save money and time, and gain gameplay time.
Its up to the user what they want, and not for anyone else to push their opinions and sharp opinions down their throats. Theres no right or wrong in an opinion, so dont get all high and mighty thinking that your opinions are written on some Ancient stone tablet or something like that.