They'll sell you an upgrade kit for that, pretty cheap. One of the major reasons I am so happy I bought a good stick : I can upgrade it, change handles, and repair it. Big deal to me after the 3 T16k's I burned thru in two years.
Try that with most of the other main stream sticks.
As far as built like a tank... I have an original CH Products Flightstick from the early '90s in my graveyard.. Two button, two axis, with throttle wheel.. It would still function if new PC's had the 20 pin port ( way before USB ). Now that thing took major abuse for years, quite literally.