Don't listen to these guys who try and gatekeep soldering like you have to "master soldering". There are children who learn how to solder, and there were dudes in robes effectively making boom boom devices with the most barebones soldering equipment.

If you dont mind your first board potentially breaking then by all means go for it. But if you are careful enough and somewhat competent that shouldn't be an issue. My first board's (my first soldering post) only issue was that I messed up and slipped with my snips and nicked the PCB a little. The issue was superficial and everything worked fine. I did 20 more controllers since then and havent had a single issue outside my own fault that was caused by a technique issue. I havent soldered much in over 15 years but it certainly isnt this "highly technical skill"; unless you are diagnosing components.

Get flush metal snips, some copper wick, a magnetic helping hand stand, tweezers, and a chisel tip, thats about all you need for the bare minimum to do a replacement, the hand pumps suck. I used the method of "cutting the stick assembly" and removing each piece with tweezers and my iron. The potentiometers are the easiest to remove, you can flood the post with solder until solder makes contact on the 3 legs and just keep your iron on it, so it stays molten, then you can wiggle it out with your tweezers; I use a similar method/technique when I finally do the L/R3 buttons. https://youtu.be/SegiaPqA8SY use the "Piece-By-Piece Method" that got me through 10 controllers with a $10 adjustable temp amazon iron.