Will gamepad function the same in ARR?

[Kirito]

At the very least, what they should do is make it so you don't need to hold it down. One press highlights the side that it activates, and if you press the other button, the other side is highlighted.

I agree, when I first read how they planned to implement it, I had the same idea. And you could just press the side that is highlighted to dehighlight it. If enough people feel that way in phase 2 they will probably add the option to lock the trigger in settings.