I've used this joystick for years. Eventually you will have to buy another as they do not last forever. Joystick use in games, regardless of their type is always a give and take. Yes, they give you more immersion in the game play but they also tend to offer downsides vs the less immersive keyboard / mouse setup that these games have to support by default. I use my hat for straffe (up, down, left ,right) I use the twist of the stick to roll. I use the x and y movement of the stick to handle yaw and pitch. There is a throttle on the joystick and i use it for that purpose. The buttons (and there are plenty) are mapped up to preference. I tend to not use the generally accepted "secondary fire" button as a secondary fire button because my thumb is controlling straffe and I prefer my secondary fire to not require me to lift off of the straffe button to activate it. Every button on the top of the joystick is an important combat button if you use the hat for straffe so keep that in mind when mapping keys to your joystick (you have 4 outside of the hat that you can press without leaving the hat).
Even though in some games of this genre (and maybe this one) it may be easier to do certain things without a joystick, I still find it more fullfilling to use one. I dont play the game to win, i play the game to have fun.
