I've always found it amusing that the vast majority of Gaffers hate the PSX seperated D-Pad, and love the Sautn style disc type. I hate disc and cross D-Pads with a passion, and I have always decalred the PSX D-Pad as the best ever.
I suppose that most would retort that they find the disc type D-Pads superior for fighting game input, but, obviously, that's not a dilemma that I ever let myself face.