I've owned two Cougars, many CH (gameport and USB) sticks/throttles/pedal sets, and several Saitek HOTAS of the X36/45 vintage.
I've had two stock Cougars, and, although I tried, I could never adjust to the stiff throw resistance. It isn't just that the stick is hard to move, because I could have adapted to that. The real problem is that both sticks had an inordinate amount of slop right in the center, which made fine adjustments around the middle (where fine adjustments are most critical) impossible. Also, due to the gimballing/resistance mechanism the stock Cougars use, it is very difficult to move the stick in a straight line from one quadrant, though the center, to the opposite quadrant.
There are some great points about the Cougar, though. It is an all-metal replica of an F-16 stick, which is very cool IMHO. Also, its switches and knobs are all metal and include two analog rotaries on the throttle. The Cougar has decent programmability, but it pales in comparision to CH's Control Manager package. Finally, the Cougar sports 1024x1024 resolution, which is very nice (CH's sticks, in comparison, have 256x256 resolution). Unfortunately, that improved resolution is meaningless in the stock Cougar, given the difficulty of precisely positioning the stick. (Also, the pots that came with my sticks did not produce clean outputs. This may have been an anomaly.) Now, if you're willing to take the time and spend the $$ to mod your Cougar stick, I suspect you could get rid of (or at least dramatically reduce) the problems I've described. If you're interested in this route, you should check out the Cougar forums at frugalsworld.com.
The Saitek sticks were much more usable, but mine suffered from cheap construction (e.g., a large-to-begin-with and constantly growing dead zone in the joysticks) and a poorly conceived rudder-on-the-throttle mechanism. Still, these were very good sticks for the money.
I've always come back to CH. The quality, precision (their sticks have a very light throw, much like the Saitek sticks'), and programmability is great (the programmability is unreal), not to mention the customer support. One thing you might miss from your Saitek HOTAS is the throttle rotaries, becase there are none on CH's Pro Throttle. I find it a satisfactory trade-off for the additional hat switches you get on the Pro Throttle, but others might disagree. If you're interested, you should check out the forums at
http://www.ch-hangar.com. Notice how often CH folks personally respond to users' posts.
JNOV
