..i'd been suggesting since the alt.fan.elite days that Frontier should commission a dedicated controller for E4... shame ED has completely tanked for me, not even worth plugging in a clunky great joystick if i'm not allowed to fly my own ship, and at the end of the day, the way i see it we're ultimately only interacting with a computer that's simply running a spacey game - unless wearing a VR headset, the best haptic input method has converged on mouse and keys. It was more than sufficient for FE2 and FFE, so that's all i use now, on the rare occasions i fire up ED for a half hour or so..
Still, the type of controller i'd envisaged for E4 wasn't so much a stick as a complete console, possibly including pedals, that could be replicated in-game as a general-purpose 'astrogation console' (the term used in the original Elite), complete with a faithful Beeb keyboard and OLED scanner.. would defo be cool, but not cheap...