I'm 29 but I have a hard time with this in a lot of advanced games.

Arkham Knight is a fantastic game that looks incredible to this day, with an awesome story and gameplay. It also has a TON of button combos to remember during combat. Stuff for your gadgets (a different combination for each, usually a trigger + face button(s) combo); stuff for special combat moves, both with and without the Batmobile nearby; contextual functionality that changes based on the current activity; etc.

So I usually just resort to beating the shit out of bad guys with Batman's gloved hands and maybe some batarangs, batclaw, and REC.

Wow. I never got into it, but it sounds like a lot. Then again, Zelda has tons of contextual keypresses and I enjoyed that significantly.

You are correct. You are typically using your whole arm for the full joystick instead of your thumb for the thumb stick.