I find it too annoying to look around the cockpit with the hat switch to find all the dials and buttons. I have the 'key' buttons programmed into my joystick and I know a few of the key commands. If it strays beyond that, it probably isn't that neccesary. If it doesn't require much looking around (some buttons are just out of sight and require some zoom changes or some hat switch movement) then I'll use the mouse to click on those instead.
If I had a simpit I would make use of it.