Definitely so. Sticks aren't warbirds or any other aeroplanes which come from the designer as-is.
You must be kidding! I admit, the basics can be mapped in mere minutes. Actually the basics usually get mapped correctly automatically. Like the X- and Y-axis, 8-way hat and trigger... Every time I change to a new kind of a stick it will take me weeks to find the right and logical places for my desired functions.
Drane, it's a question of preferences. You've probably been flying AH with a stick before, so you might like to map some functions into similar places as your old stick. Muscular memory takes a while to learn new tricks! After doing that, think about the most used functions you've been doing on the keyboard. Find logical places for them on your new stick and throttle. If you find yourself triggering a wrong feature more often than not, change the mapping accordingly. There are no right or wrong mappings! For hints and tips what others have done, use the search function and limit it to this forum.
LOL!!! Stop changing sticks!!!
I've had the same CH equipment for years. I just setup my fathers stick, and my brother in laws stick. One was a T16000, the other a Logicrap. In both case it was "their" preferences (certainly NOT how I'd set it up

) but I told them the things I use most and we went from there.
8 way hat views
up modifier for views (down modifier is bonus but not as important)
fire all
secondary weapon fire
flaps up and down
WEP
view zoom, with zoom in and out buttons
clipboard with zoom in and zoom out
Thats 12 buttons plus a 8 way hat switch. This didn't work out on the Logicrap stick. So we had to compromise a bit and leave some of that to the keyboard. Once you know WHAT your mapping I draw it out on a piece of paper and map the buttons in the game in one shot. Then they start flying. If they need to move things around to feel comfortable, they can do that on the fly editing the paper as they go so they can remember whats where until they get it fine tuned. They whole process takes just a few minutes to set up, but as you said it could take weeks until your comfortable.