This is more ergonomic and precise compared to a stick. It's completely down to personal preference, but this layout is getting a lot more popular. Fight sticks have been popular because of oldschool arcade machines and historical inertia, but designs are branching out now (see "mixboxes", keyboard users and all sorts of custom layouts online).
Neat. And thanks for the insight. Do you have a good source for those button/switches? I'm working on a 3D design mouse and am intrigued by these arcade buttons
I got buttons from here. The small buttons are 24mm, the big ones are 30mm.
I wouldn't recommend these for a mouse. These buttons don't give much tactile feedback and don't feel particularly crisp. They are nice prominent buttons for bashing in this context for fighting games.
The leverless design allows you to move faster as well, if you're holding back, you can also hold forward and then release back, meaning there's no travel time between moving the stick from back to forward.