Lol I don't think you are listening. It DOES work. Why would we recommend a route if we didn't know if it worked?
Keyboard encoders (not decoders, get your terminology right) are the default standard for all games. Since the only input device a game developer knows for sure will be on a pc is a keyboard, all games have some level of keyboard support and most have pretty good keyboard support. You'll often run into an issue of hard-coded keys, but other than that....
Also use your head there for a second... you keyboard was plugged in when you used the gamepad right? The gamepad, buy itself worked just fine right? Yeah there you go.