I'm not Metroid head but my take would be that the missiles are supposed to be kind of a big deal, so tucking them behind a button hold + fire keeps them feeling a little less common or garden than the one-press pew-pews.
I mean, it's not a huge issue, but just seems a bit unnecessary, and definitely led me to make mistakes, especially when you also factor in L to stand still and aim.
It's a relief they didn't rely heavily on the grappling beam.
My main complaint with the controls is how twitchy Samus is to control, which is a huge problem for any of my Switch pads. This isn't a fault with the game itself tbf, but my Joycons are so bad she'll occasionally peg it to the left of the screen when she's supposed to be standing still, and the difference between straight up on the stick and up right/left is proving a problem. Will have to invest in replacements before Silksong I reckon, I've made the best of it for too long.
I’m having issues with the complexity of the movements inputs required. I think it’d be fine on a decent pad but it really becomes an issue with the joycons.
I just got Screw Attack, and I am really enjoying it so far.
Re: controls, my biggest gripes are Grapple beam, as previously mentioned, and the speed boost, clicking in the left stick to activate it just doesn't feel right to me at all.
Speed boost has always been tricky in Metroid, so I'll give it a pass. It's mostly there now as an optional technique which only the experts/most committed will need to master in reaching 100%.
The acrobatics you've got to pull off to get those missile+tank combo pick ups are ridiculous. I've managed a few, but it's just not worth the bother. Just leads to frustration because sadly Nintendo's own controllers just aren't up to the task.
The controls are certainly a strange one for this game - especially as the d-pad is pretty much redundant. Would've been nice to have missiles and grapple assigned to a direction on the d-pad. I also don't see why there isn't an option to auto speed boost whenever you're moving. It's so fiddly to click that stick in while moving left and right. I can't recall if you just auto speed boosted in Super Metroid? I think you did...
With you on the visuals. I didn’t like the look that much in the trailer but playing it it looks great. The 3D backgrounds and environmental effects later on are particularly good.
I’m actually enjoying making a route to mop up items and check out previously untraversed rooms etc. Some of these are damn tricky/fiddly to get. Just got one missile pack for which I had to do a perfect speed boost into shines park, then quickly drop down and shoot beam blocks to fall through and do a midair activation of the dash. Before shinespark ran out.