Hi Mirk,
The sticks are in lower position than dualshock’s. In dualshock you can’t reach an ideal area for interaction with touchpad, this happen because of the “wings” of the controller. Since the orientation of your hands become “vertical”, your thumbs can reach more space in a very comfy way, thats why I decided to move the sticks and change the angle between its and the button area: to get more area without “noise”. In the new position you can interact with touchpad very weell without getting into the sticks.
And about the gesture, that touchpad can receive it in any place, I’ve just pointed some way to do that, in fact, I think you cant do the gesture with any hand at any place on the touchpad.
Thanks for your questions, I’m happy for getting some feedback here.