Okay, I'll bite: Tell me how having A/B/X/Y in the worst possible position available for four face buttons was a "revolutionary" idea?
The buttons as they were before weren't meant to be used like the face buttons are now. You wouldn't have had to reach across the touch screen to swing Dante's sword or whatever. The way it was supposed to work, I think, was that sectors of the right touchpad were assigned face buttons. Don't ask me how you would stop the camera from moving in those scenarios, I don't know. Lift your thumb? Incorporate a slight delay?
Same goes for the d-pad. Assigned to sectors on the left, though the touchpad would have to know to stop moving the cursor/camera.
The touchscreen was neat in that you would theoretically have mapped a lot of things to it, with appropriately illustrative pictures. Or used it for other information, a bit like the Wii U pad. Turns out nobody actually wanted to look down at their controller to access what could be radically different functions from game to game, i.e. we discover yet again why controllers are the way they are.
What's left are the touchpads and the haptic feedback. The former bridges the gap between analogue stick and mouse controls, which could be revolutionary enough if you ask me. Haptic feedback is eh, though I suppose feeling the skipping wheels as your car loses traction or something would be pretty cool, though not too different from rumble, I suppose.
