I got my kid a cheap generic gamepad that I like a lot for its features (and price!) And was thinking of getting another one and modding them with hall effect sticks, so I stopped to actually look at it to consider if it was worth it and noticed it doesn't have triggers, the L2 and R2 are just buttons.
Which got me thinking, do analog triggers matter all that much? I don't really like racing games in general and since I'm a PC gamer I don't even consider the gamepad for precision shooters (if I feel I need precision aiming I just do m+k). I can't think of many situations where I don't just bottom out the triggers on my xbox gamepad, to the point where I get surprised if in the middle of a game I find out I can do stuff like a weak shot with a bow or a weak anything.
What situations, other than throttle and break in vehicles, do you find yourself making real use of the analog triggers? Do you think you would miss them if you didn't have them? Why? Maybe I'm just not noticing when I use them, it's nice to have, sure, but can't say more than that.
It's been a long time since I played PS2, but the analog triggers and bumpers and X/O/Tri/Sq got a fair amount of function. Ace Combat is of course a racing/flying category, but a non-racing function was Square pressure zoomed out the map variable. The other 3 shape buttons didn't utilize pressure sensitivity, but the triggers and bumpers variable controlled throttle/brake and yaw.
I vaguely remember an FPS game where aiming down sights with binoculars equipped offered variable zoom.
But realistically, there's a ton of uses for variable buttons, but devs have to employ them. I'd bet the utilization of the 6 extra PS buttons is nonexistent for any cross-platform games, especially PvP games. If you stick to PS-only titles, you'd probably find more examples. Unfortunately, I stopped at PS2, and nearly everything in my collection was racing. I can't remember the details, but something about the Xbox one controller was lacking when I played the Spyro trilogy re-release/re-port.