The controller works really well once you've configured things for it. Its target cycling defaults to targeting everything, which can be cumbersome in crowded situations, but once you've set up multiple targeting filters and can switch to the appropriate one for the situation, it works much better. Trying to stay within the initial 16 hotbar slots for everything won't work for long, but once you set up the expanded hold controls and perhaps separate out combat (weapon drawn) bars from out-of-combat (weapon sheathed) bars, you can have a total of 48 slots available before needing to manually switch bars to get to any more.

There are still a few things I wish were easier (ground targeted skills, for one), but I suspect that a lot of the rumors of the controller being awkward originated from people who were initially trying it out and hadn't worked out how to configure it efficiently yet.