If surface feeling is your only concern, you may look into getting some trackpad stickers from aftermarket. I’ve had dbrand skin before this mod and it felt fine. There should be a bunch of variants with different textures on places like etsy. I mean redoing the trackpad covers seems like a huge pain in the ass.

I’ve considered getting joystick replacements too but decided against. They are not super hard to replace as they are immediately exposed after taking the back cover off, and while less durable can still last years upon years, none of controllers I used in my entire life ever developed stick drift.

Buttons meanwhile require to take out a lot of stuff, so be prepared and leave enough space on your desk for components. Good luck with mods!

I’ve basically just finished it an hour ago and only run a single game + input tests to make sure everything works, so I can’t vouch for anything longterm.

I decided to keep original trackpad covers because I gave up trying to lift the covers and got scared it may break if I apply even more heat / pressure. You have to place black adhesive under transparent covers anyway so it’s not a huge visual compromise. They don’t seem to rub on the chassis, at least so far. Otherwise I kept to the instructions and replaced everything.

Also grats on your mod too!

Russian here. This is a super old claim from our government and is a common source of jokes, it’s even called “Cheburnet” (from Cheburashka) colloquially, nobody really treats such claims seriously. Last time Russian government tried to influence internet was when they struggled to ban telegram for several years, and ended up giving up, endorsing it, and moving their official resources to it.