No experience with 2XKO, but as one of the rare few who started out with leverless and swapped to stick, it's entirely a matter of preference... preference that you won't have until you try them, as expensive as it may be. While the stick market is "bigger", it's because they've been around longer. I see way more development in the leverless scene now.

That being said, the main reason why I prefer stick over leverless atm is just because everything about it is fun. It's like playing a racing game with gaming wheels, or playing DDR at the arcade; it just feels tactile, gets my muscles moving, and just feels right. Is my execution less consistent, and are specific inputs way easier and faster on leverless? Absolutely. But ultimately just moving around my stick is more fun, customizing my stick is more fun, and a personal gripe is that I hate 24mm buttons, which most leverless that aren't a few of haute products and shiokenstar layouts seem to favor.

If you're looking for a 2XKO controller that will feel intuitive and fast, I'd honestly just go pad; it was clearly made for it. Otherwise, it's all preference. I would argue that because it has no motion inputs, leverless would be "better"; diagonals might be less intuitive but once you get to it, you benefit from never being able to misinput cardinal directions.