I don't know how my PS2 controller never had stick drift once after being literally thrown across the room multiple times but my modern-day xbox controller, PS4 controller, and switch controller all break if you breathe in the same room as them
there's a specific reason for this:
every time you boot up the PS2, the controller auto-recalibrates its sticks. they DO have drift -- it's just that whenever you start playing again, the "at rest" position is automatically set to the current value and the drift is eliminated at the software level.
you lose like, 5/10% of sensitivity on the long run? but trust me when i say you are never ever going to notice the difference. if things go south and the drift gets noticeable (i have never in my life seen that happen, and i own a PS2 to this day, but if), you can manually recalibrate the whole system by just rotating the sticks as the console boots.
see the PS2 instruction manual (pictured above) for the exact motion if you want to be precise, but really, any motion will do. you're setting the new minimum and maximum values when you do that. it fixes itself as you use it.
that's it.
the DualShock 2 is a beast of a controller and possibly the best controller ever made, it's packed with features that are barely discussed and that we never saw again. this could theoretically be implemented in any controller though and it's an indictment of the current state of hardware: we had stick drift solved in the early 2000's, but that drastically reduces the number of new controllers you can sell.
Edit: as someone rightfully pointed out, the PS2 isn’t the only console that did this - and yes, the DualShock absolutely has issues with the stick getting sticky after some time. I still think analog face buttons were brilliant though but they were criminally underused and completely forgotten
Also, there are stick technologies that don't drift, and they've been in use since the 90s, but I guess they cost more money so most companies never bothered? They were used in the Sega Saturn 3D pad and the Dreamcast controller, but they kind of only just started getting popular again in the past few years with 3rd party controllers after everyone got mad at how bad the Switch controllers' drift is.
