One thing I tremendously enjoy about my Logitech F-510 is the ability to switch the d-pad with the left analog stick. This way I can use the stick instead of the d-pad and vice versa. This is very useful for some games when either of them is unused.
Is this possible with the Steam Controller? Be it a profile in the software or a hardware button like with the F-510.
Yes, that's possible. I just checked, you can freely map both the left touchpad (which mimics the d-pad, there is no physical d-pad) and the analog stick on a game-by-game basis. There's also a feature called Mode shifting, which allows you to remap any of the buttons to a different set of buttons. You can configure it so that for example the left trigger switches the analog stick to a d-pad.
The Steam controller can be totally remapped in software (via Big Picture mode). It doesn't have a mode button like the F-510, but you can configure what all the buttons and pads do on a per-game basis.
If you switch back and forth during a game, it might be difficult (though the mode switching might help here). If you don't switch at run time, you'll be fine.
