Most of the cost of a stick is the buttons, stick, and pcb. So yeah it should be a little cheaper but not much.
They are legit. Moves where you have to return to neutral multiple times are a breeze with these. Think of how easy instant air dash is with these (9 5 9 ), or Electrics in Tekken. Standing 720 specials. Instant blocking after walking forward or perfect charge partitioning.
Games nowadays have shortcuts making this even more superior.
Objectively these are superior to stick in all but fun. I don't use mine often but it is great for certain games. My one complaint is the button sizing. They don't use 30mm buttons for the attack buttons.
With that said thereis a learning curve with these. You'll find things easy on joystick are quite hard to do on hitbox while stuff ezpz on hitbox takes a lot of work on stick.
To me use whatever you want but if its a tournament shit should always be standardized. Or else we get stupid shit like having an extra button for back in Street Fighter 4 for plinking.