Paradroid?More buttons for more complex controls has been a barrier since the1980s.
If the controls used for early 3D games weren't limited, controls wouldn't have evolved and improved. Games worked with the limits of their hardware, and then hardware was advanced to improve what games would do.And third person games in open environments have been a thing for as long yet dual-stick controls a thing on home console controllers until - I believe - the Dual Analogue controller for PlayStation.
Inevitable doesn't mean instantaneous. It's an evolutionary process, identifying weaknesses in the current solutions and finding improvements, trying ideas and settling on the best. But the best will out. Could anyone have predicted the dual-stick design in 1985? Probably not. But was the modern dual-stick design inevitable? I think so.Sometimes, things are only obvious in hindsight, i.e when the obvious has been presented. Like how most smartphones follow LG's Prada all screen smartphone, how most ultra light laptops following the design philosophy of the MacBook Air and so on.