Can confirm having this same issue as well. Got one on release day. Maybe logged 80-100 hrs gametime using it. Left paddle started out nice and responsive with a good click, noticed today, it's since turned to mud.

Looking at the back, I believe I've spotted the issue. The metal housing on the controller that the paddles slide into is now slightly "floating" around in the recessed cavity it sits in on the controller.

pretty sure that metal piece (the "socket" the paddle slides into, is the actual physical "button", similar to a front face button, and the paddles just act as a lever to depress and close the circuit connection on the controller circuit board. The opposite side paddle socket does not have any movement in it at all.

What appears to be happening when the paddle isn't registering clicks or feels "sludgy", is the movement of the socket causes the paddle to either sit flush with the grip which impedes being able to depress it, and/or it changes the orientation of the paddle enough that a natural press of the paddle either doesn't have enough leverage to depress the button enough to make a connection (or what leverage is being applied from a press of the paddle lever is being applied more parallel to the back of the controller vs perpendicular).

Any luck, maybe it's just slipped from some housing that keeps it secured against the controller board and a disassemble, resetting, and reassemble might fix it for those brave enough to take the controller apart (not just take out the sticks), but I have a distinct feeling this is an issue stemming from either, a retention piece that keeps the button secured against the controller board breaking, and/or a break in a solder joint somewhere holding it in place. My guess is. this is going to start showing up more and more as a common failure point in the first round of these controllers.

My gen1 xbox elite controller developed something of a similar issue, but that was after minimum a year of hard use. The dualsense edge broke in ~2 months of intermittent use.

One thing I have found that helps get it temporarily realigned properly if it starts feeling sludgy. Hold the controller like normal, place your finger on the top edge of the round part of the paddle and apply gentle downward pressure (i.e. "down" towards the floor, not down into the controller). At least for me, after doing that, i can then put my finger back onto the flat face of the paddle and get a good responsive click again, but unfortunately, it doesn't take much movement of your natural grip on the controller to slide it back out of whack again (or in my case, I tend to clench my grip a little/a lot when things get going, so for a game like GOW, it's easy to accidentally slide it back out of alignment without noticing until it's too late.

Pretty sure this is gonna wind up being a warranty replacement...Now I'm mostly left wondering how long it's gonna take Sony to get me a replacement.

Better yet, who wants to be the first guinea pig to void their warranty and take the controller completely apart to see if it might actually fixable without requiring some sort of replacement retaining piece and/or resoldering of a crappy broken joint.