I agree 100% with your statements about Pac-Man and ET however I don't see how somebody could not have a problem with the Atari 5200 controllers. Besides the fact that they are destined to break extremely quickly for controller standards, the non self centering analog with its extremely wide range of motion made many games impossible to play. If the 5200 had the same amount of controller options as the 2600 did then we wouldn't have looked back at the 5200 controllers as such a disaster. We would be able to use them for the games they were meant to be played with like Pole Position and we could use a more traditional 2600 style joystick for games like Pac-Man.
It's a real shame because the 5200 had incredible graphics for its time, great sound, as well as built in voice capabilities. It also had every important arcade game of its time. It had the potential to accomplish great things for atari and the video game industry as a whole. Especially if it wasn't so expensive when it came out.