Looking at KLOV, it seems like the "9 position optical" joystick meant 8 directions + center (ie: 8-way), and was the "grandfather" or "distant uncle" of the perfect 360 optical?
(Can't trust KLOV, so I ask here.)
Yes, except I don't THINK that was the first optical stick. It seems like every manufacturer experimented with them at one time or another.
Ah, the "distant uncle".

The 49-way sticks are similar in their counting as well. Center is one position, then they are basically 16 positions around the compass, and three levels of how far you can push. At least that is how I understood them to be.
I'd say there's three levels along each cardinal direction, so including the center it gives you a 7 x 7 grid, or "49 ways". That results in 32 possible compass directions, but it's up to the game on how all these will be interperted.
The games usually used the inputs just like a course analog joystick. But I guess it could have been as you describe, if the dirrection between the cards and the diags are grouped, their "levels" aren't in the exact same direction, and aren't equaly spaced like the cardinal and normal diagonals. (see attach)