I have been mulling over the best USB PC controllers with analog sticks and the most small, compact form factor.

I have come to the conclusion that none exist, with proper drivers from any company that makes these.

Does anyone else find this incredibly annoying? Every time I plug a controller. It may work. But always with concessions on function, depending on the OS. Also, a 3rd party program should not be required to get the most out of a product. That falls under the category of concessions.

So far the most popular controllers seem to be for 8BitDo and Retro-Bit. Neither happens to have anything other than a firmware updater. Although depending on the 8BitDo controller one has, some of the wireless can accidentally have a driver. But it is incredibly flaky in practice getting it work and it seems randomly picked up when plugged in.


Anyone find travel gaming items not very enjoyable sometimes? (PC not console gaming)

I suppose you mean digital gamepads.
Every piece of hardware needs a driver, starting with the USB controller itself. In older windows versions you had to install USB 3 drivers manually. Now a driveris pre installed, but you can replace it of course with the one your motherboard facturer supplies.
When it comes to gamepad functions ... Microsoft can not be held responsible for whatever hardware developers come up with. But Windows has a very good model for gamepads, all of them work without using extra drivers. Macro keys and some extra functions may or may not require extra software, depending on their implementation.

You should not have problems with (BitDo controllers, I tested then with PC, ARmiga and the Raspberry Pi. The wireless ones use a dongle anyway, so that's no surprise.

I am also using a Thrustmaster Hotas-X flightstick, a original XBox360 gamepad (best choice), a EasySMX gamepad, (which comes close, also has the better surface, but I prefer the latter ones shape) and a PXN 82 for arcade games. The EasySMX and PXN have a switch for PS4 compatibility as well.

Never had to install any software since I scrapped my old CH F16 stick.

Most "drivers" just add a readable name to the overview list anyway.

In short, 8bitdo is the controller of my choice.

They don't have "proper drivers" because they adhere to standards. Your computer already has drivers for both Xinput and Direct Input controllers.