Greetings,
Frontier uses experienced players and 3rd party support websites to support ED. Financially per the quarterly statement that is probably a wise decision as adding to a game in 2019 is unbelievably expensive in the millions. My opinion is a group of Frontier Devs come up with FSS figuring out that they have covered all the bases. They spend hundreds of hours developing this and the last thing they want to do when they go home to the family is to play the game using FSS. So they let the world wide player base to figure out what they missed. Still someone in PR was smart sending out emails promoting the Forum on all platforms so a player can come here and find out what is going on. With that being said...
Getting the FSS controls setup correctly makes all the difference. Using the Logitech X-56 grey...
"Honk" in a fire group on the joystick fire button 1. A toggle switch to goto weapons in case being interdicted while in FSS. It sometimes happens especially in anarchy or war systems.
Enter/Leave FSS is on a throttle toggle switch. Also great for leaving the Detailed Surface Scanner.
Analog/Combat is on a throttle toggle switch. Going to combat also leaves the FSS.
The joystick takes care of the FSS camera pitch and yaw.
The important one is an analog thumb stick on the Logitech X-56 throttle to control the following:
Fwd/Rev zooms in/out of the target. Could be called rgt/lft but with it's physical position fwd/rev works better.
Up/Dn tunes the bar right/left.
Analog is the key as it allows fast and precise placement on the tuning bar. An all-or-nothing 4-way digital hat makes using the tuning bar very frustrating...for me anyway. Once your brain and thumb quit fighting each other a player can scan small systems in seconds and large systems in minutes. The first time I scanned a system with 30 bodies it took a long time as I hadn't figured out what I was doing. Now 5 minutes and I'm not even pushing it.
Signal source identification is very easy AFTER one has scanned many thousands of them! The brain remembers where each type of signal is on the tuning bar and with experience can tell if a system has planets of interest. Main ringed planets are always on the right and their satellite planets are in the middle with several types in close proximity. Note that waiting for a planet scan to complete biological or other anomalies is a waste of time. Once the planet shows up move on as they will be fully reported in the system map later. Then pick-n-choose at your leisure.
USS signals are even easier as they are in groups. Far left on the tuning bar is the typical degraded, encoded, HGE, convoys, distress etc. A little to the right and we get non-human Thargoids if they are around. Somewhat more to the right shows up orbiting stations and outposts.
Initially look at some of the amazing graphics others have provided but don't worry about memorizing them or Frontier's "pointy" graphics for each. Just get an idea as to what is going on and go for it. Once past the learning curve a player can find exactly what they want or quickly move on knowing what they seek isn't there.
Note that my settings with the X-56 will not work for every controller on every platform but use the info for your best results. I easily set this up on a basic DualShock 4 controller on a PS4. Those on the PC owing a Logitech G13 or several other manufacturer's versions also have an analog thumb stick.
Elite Dangerous is always about a learning curve which at times seems impossible especially with their "traps" and other secondary skills such as combat or experienced exploration part of the current goal. But when a player figures it out some post on the Forum per, "This is it? It's TOO easy! Here's my 18 suggestions.".
Enjoy the Game