Thank you for such a prompt and thorough answer, you’ve given me a very positive first impression of these forums. While I will likely end up choosing a hall effect sensor as you have suggested, I was wondering if your expertise might lend you some insight on a few things that have come up during my research.
I never actually saw a price for those carbon tracks, but several factors suggested that they may have become less expensive and more durable over time. Most game system controllers seem to contain a similar mass produced joystick module for the thumb sticks, shown below.
The green parts are small potentiometers, consisting of a carbon track printed onto a pcb encapsulated in a plastic body. These modules as a whole are available for less than a dollar in one-off quantities (from aliexpress), which provides a decent price reference for the individual components they are made of. In terms of durability, I would assume that they must have an appreciable life span in order to keep up with the average gamer.
Unfortunately these particular potentiometers all have small sweep angles of roughly 60° while I require 180°, and they are still simply too large. Efforts to find a supplier to order from directly have been unsuccessful. This no longer matters though, because hall effect sensors provide a satisfactory alternative, but now my academic curiosity is piqued.
The thread below suggests that these particular potentiometers are likely some custom part, specific to this purpose, however that does not explain how they can be made so cheaply.
Is this a simple case of mass production for the gaming industry driving costs down? Or is the industry making a comeback?