I've played this game for a long time and mostly left my gripes about the controls aside. Recently I started playing with some friends on ps4 and it was quite a difference after playing on kb/m forever. I decided to set my pc version to controller so I could practice more, but in doing so I wanted to also voice my feedback on the control scheme for the game.
First I want to lay out what I consider an essential premise for my suggestions:
A game's difficult does not include its control scheme. Putting a commonly used button in an awkward place is not "part of the challenge." A well designed game should be able to be both difficult to play, yet allow you to do what you intend to do easily.
A game can punish you for bad decisions, but should not set you up for bad decisions to be made unintentionally.
Also - current keybinding options do not allow for these to be set up in the game currently, so I can't just change it for myself.
Controller suggestions:
Move the left / right inventory item actions to the L2 / R2 triggers, give the right thumb click (l3) the action of opening up the crafting menu, and if pressed again the inventory zoom (crafting an item, or pressing the O or B button closes the menu outright,) give the right thumbstick control over the crafting menu selection, and allow movement via left stick while in the minimap screen. Left and Right should be mapped to "drop 1" and "drop half" of whatever stack they are on with down remaining "drop all." Items that are refuelable should have an interact environment option which will allow you to select their fuel without entering into an inventory zoom.
Currently these things all get in the way of movement in a way that limits skillful play which is not experienced on the kb/m setup. If someone needs to use an item, craft, or refer to the map, drop 1 or some items, or refuel a held item, they must completely stop moving to do so. This is not the case on kb/m where you can click for movement and then proceed to do any of these while moving. These changes would give a player freedom of movement while also managing these other options.
KB/M suggestions:
Currently kb/m has a default binding of numbers to the inventory tray. When you press 1 you will commit an interact self action on the item in slot 1. This should be refined to allow us to bind certain items to the keys directly rather than inventory slots, and have this binding carry over to other identical items if the currently bound item is used up or dropped. These hotkeys are very useful except that they allow the accidental use of the incorrect items in a way that is purely punishing for the player and adds nothing to the game play. I play with my inventory in such a way that I can utilize these hotkeys to quickly swap out my lantern, armor, weapons, and tools as needed. Yet that muscle memory becomes a trap when you pick something up and it takes the slot previously used by a piece of equipment.
If someone wants to eat the Guardian's Horn or Deerclopse eyeball I guess they can. I don't think its bad that these options exist... they are purely bad options but w/e. What I will say needs to change is how easy it is to accidentally eat one of these when you pick your lantern back up, and need to quickly equip it after fighting these bosses.
Considering the micromanagement needed to fight bosses like toadstool, ancient fuel weaver, and dragonfly without walls, I think the game really needs to improve the quality of hotkey controls.