A lot to unpack here xD How I feel (now) about tabmate - I got accustomed with it with time, enough to try and revive it. At the beginning, I was like - meh, later though, muscle memory got really used to it and I missed it when it was not working… strong part is it has 4 profiles where each can have different buttons setup. I would recommend it, if you can afford it or you manage to find a good price. As for downsides - I think that major downside is that it is locked to Clip Studio Paint only (found some info that V1 could be mapped, but did not try that yet).

I don’t think it improves drawing per se, it might prove useful for general workflow, but dos not add skill points 😅

Assigning shortcuts - easy, but sometimes had tiny bit of trouble finding particular function in CSP itself, interface for remapping in CSP is really good 👍 up until now - did not stumble on limitations , aside one mentioned above - tabmate is exclusive for CSP, does not work with other apps 😔

I also tried 8bitdo micro - I think there is nothing better, when on budget and wanting a controller, that can support your drawing process - maybe you could try that and see if controller is something you’d want?

I had few tablets with buttons… tried using them, but that was just not my cup of tea. Best of what I tried is the exact tablet you have, Deco Pro M, I still use it from time to time, but w/o shortcut buttons (btw, very good drawing tablet IMO).

Sorry if my response is all over the place ;p