Straffo, you have a good point here. And, possibly the sample frequency could be a setting in AH. This would prolong the life of many older joysticks.
On another note, I often wondered why joystick manufacturers don't go to non-contact hall effect sensors. We used them for years in high accuracy robotics, so there's no reason not to use them in game joysticks.
From the description, I THINK Saitek's new X52 is hall effect. They claim the X and Y axis are "non-contact technology".