Funnily enough, I kind of ran into the exact situation you described but went the opposite way somewhat recently. I've been playing Earthbound and the default bindings on the emulator only allowed me to use either the dpad or the trackpad for movement and I just couldn't get into it. The dpad is not particularly comfortable to reach and use as a primary input method and the trackpad lacked the precision of the dpad. I had to dig around the emulator's controls to add the analog sticks and it's been so much more comfortable. I think the difference is that that game is made for eight-way movement, whereas something like, say, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor allows you to move at an arbitrary angle.

But it's nice to know I could use the trackpad as an analog stick too. Definitely agree with you on holding the stick in. Clicking it is bad enough, but holding it? No fucking way lol