So. I have 2 I hate.
I had this old gamesube one for the switch. It was a wired one by powerA. Buttons would get jammed, accidentally broke the stick by leaving it in a bad position overnight (my bad) the cover of the cstick randomly slid off (had to glue it) and the while thing was hollow.
Also, I have a keapster explorer and the dpad is awful. Sometimes it jams to the left but its just a plain bad dpad, no physical feedback at all
Aside from broken controllers, which I don’t think can reasonably count, the Atari 2600 joystick.
One button, a lot of resistance to push on the stick.
After that, an elderly Logitech gamepad from the 1990s that had a D-pad that rolled diagonal way too easily. IIRC it had a screw-in mini-joystick that could attach to the center of the D-pad. Don’t remember the model. White case, attached directly to a joystick/MIDI port.
After that, I think the NES controller. I have no idea why people like those or actually buy recreations. Yes, nostalgia, but the ergonomics on it were terrible. Hard buttons, sharper corners on the D-pad than is the norm today, and a squared-off controller made the thing downright uncomfortable to use for long periods of time.
Ironically, the Atari -like joystick from the 2000’s from Walmart for $15 that plugs directly into your TV with games stored in the joystick is a better joysticks than the original 2600 joysticks.
However, I would contend that the Intellivision controller was worse.
I had a Colecovision (and Vic 20), and although I will say that was better than the 2600 and Intellivision joystick, I have to emphasize to all these youngsters complaining about the original NES controllers that those were still an improvement over previous default joysticks.
The Atari 2600 joysticks were a blight. The base was so small and the stick so unresponsive I remember having to hold the base steady with my feet to use that accursed controller. The breakout dial controller was pretty sweet tho.