Looking at the sixaxis or the Xbox controllers there are far to many controlls  you would need 2+ thumbs on each hand to operate all these controls it's way to messy !

Any game using so many controls is far to complex for a normal person to play without spending time to learn what each button does and i dont have that much interest really.

Games and game controllers should be simple have just one analogue stick or at most 2 thumb buttons on each side,  get rid of the D-pad and 4 buttons. They should also have a microphone and speaker built into them, be six axis motion sensitive , have gyros or a light pointer system and inertia. And a haptic feedback device of course.

Wiimote( speaker + light pointer + inertia + vibration)

sixaxis (inertia + single axis gyro (which is probably faulty and never been used!))  the DS3 also has vibration.

X360 controller has vibration , the newton will probably have (vibration + inertia + gyros ).

Overall the current generation controllers are far from ideal ,they seem to be  hode podge of ideas past, if your lucky perhaps a few poorly implemented motion, vibration or pointing features thrown in the wiimote seems to be the best of them so far. 

The design of the Dualshock3 and 360 controller work very well for most genres out there. It isn't that there are too many buttons. Games nowadays require more actions than simply a B button for jumping and an A button for shooting/slashing/etc. The layout of both controllers, which stems basically from the original Dualshock design and earlier the SNES design is optimal for playing games on most genres or at the very least give us a working alternative to the best method.

Different genres require completely different method of control to get the most out of it and one controller will never be a "one size fits all", but the PS3 and 360 controllers come the closest. The Wii-mote is showing headway and has conquered a genre or two already itself. 

Computers, Whats with all the buttons on the keyboard?

Televisions, Whats with all the buttons on the remote?

Humans, Whats with all the silly questions they ask?

The answer to all is, because it works well that way.

I don't think the existed controlorers are hard to cope with.
I would definately agree that the combination wiimote and nunchuk is the best controller method. I play videogames 20 years and the nintendo controllers of this generation are by far the most exceptional.

Most people use a mouse or trackpad with their computer because it's easier than keyboard only.

Most television remotes are pretty god awful.

Sometimes common objects don't work all that well. Intelligent design can often improve function and accessibility.

I'm pretty sure most people would agree... I'm fine with the 360 & PS3 gaming controllers. (As far as # of buttons)

one good example of simplicity is the mac mouse it had just one button ! and while it was simple it could do everything.
One case of too many butons is graw2 it's completly incomprehensible - the developers expect the player to spend hours of time learning all the actions rather than playing the game.

 I don't really agree with this, since they still have a 'right-click' equivilant which is ctrl-click, which i think takes more effort and really slows things down

No.....how anyone can like 1 button mac mice is mind boggling.

 Amazingly, a few of the users I support do prefer the single clicker. Most have long since become bitches for the scroll-wheel, though.

 Of course, I also have a user who uses her mouse upside down. Well, I guess it's technically frontside back. Now that's really mind-boggling.