And immediate second technical issue,
the version of JoyToKey that is included here did not work for me (Windows 10x64, up to date). I tried with admin mode, xp compatibility, the works, it recognized my gamepad input but did not manage to forward those to either the game or even like notepad.exe or anything.
Downloaded the latest version of JoyToKey and placed the cfg files for the game in its folder. Started that in XP compatibility and with admin privileges, now it works in-game.